Pokemon : Mystery After Dungeon
by Starrymoon04
Summary: The story of a human-turned-pokémon who dissappears after saving the world, but must return to recover the Imperium Crystals to stop the ruin of space. She finds herself in another dimension, and she must discover the truth about what's really going on...
1. Chapter 1

The Eevee blinked. Was she... Dead? She looked around to see pokémon stood around her, an her memories seemed to flood back; her transformation from human to pokémon, meeting Pikachu, forming Team Sapphire, being on the run, beating Groudon and saving Team ACT, the metiorite, Rayquaza... That was when she remembered what had happened after Rayquaza shattered the falling star with his Hyper Beam. She'd been... Saved?

"Catstar!" Pikachu cried. She turned to face him groggily, still slightly uneasy on her feet after all that had happened, "Catstar! I think Gengar saved us..." he looked distant for a moment, before becoming his cheery self again. "But anyways, we saved the world! Hooray!"

"I'll shoot my Water Gun to kickstart this party!" her friend, Blastoise, announced.

"Not near me!" another local, Lombre, cried out. Everyone laughed. Octillery sneaked behind him, holding him in a tight grip.

"Get him, Blastoise! I've got him so he can't move!" Everyone laughed, but Catstar remained distant. She remembered what she'd been told would happen... She closed her eyes, to think.

"The time has come, Catstar..." a voice suddenly said. She opened her eyes to see the see-through image of Gardevoir before her, "Your role in thie world has ended. If there was a way to let you stay here, I'd do everything to help you.  
"But I'm afraid there isn't. You'd best be saying your goodbyes..." Tears filled her eyes as the psycic type faded away. Pikachu spun to face his partner.

"C-Catstar! What's happening to you? Why are you surrounded in light?" she looked down; sure enough, she could see small beads of light drifting up near her, then fading away as they streaked higher through the air, new bubbles of light forming near the ground. They were surrounding her tightly, with a small gravitational pull coming from each, trying to ease her gently into the air. However, each was too small and in quantities nowhere near enough to manage the feat. She closed her eyes, facing her best friend.

"Pikachu... I'm sorry I never told you. You know how Gardevoir has been coming to me in dreams? Well, she told me last night that this was my role. To save the world. Now my role's ended, I guess I have to return to the human world..."

"N-no!" Pikachu cried, tearing up.

"I can't stop this from happeneing, Pikachu." she gave a shaky laugh, "Believe me, if I could, I would. But don't keep your victory short-lived. I'll be out there somewhere... Wishing I still had you." She shielded her eyes. "(Oof, the light's getting brighter now... I'll never forget you... Farewell, friend.)" She soon felt the light finally gaining enough energy to lift her, feeling her paws raise from the ground slightly...

"You can't leave!" Pikachu wailed, "What ha- Aren't we friends?"

"Yes. You'll always be my friend, Pikachu. I'll never forget you..."

"D-don't go..." PIkachu begged.

"I'm so sorry, Pikachu. I'm blessed to have met you..."

"B-but... What am I going to do, now?"

"I'm so sorry... This is goodbye..."

"Catstar!" Charizard yelled.

"No! Catstar!" the youngest pokémon present, Caterpie, wailed.

"Catstar!" Jumpluff added, along with all the others. However, Pikachu never sais anything, filled with too much anguish to manage. The Eevee saw as a huge bubble of light surrounded her, making it impossible to see but somehow not hurting her eyes. Her paws fully lifted off the ground as she began floating through the air. She felt weightless as she ploughed through the sky, soon leaving past the sunset, seeing the stars around her as she drifted...

"I don't wanna go..." she whined. However, as if on cue, her memories of her human life flooded back to her. Becoming a pokemon trainer, her favorite pokemon who was ironically a Pikachu, whose name was Sparx and meeting Gardevoir one day, who had begged her to save the pokémon world. After a lot of protest, she'd finally agreed, asking for her to have her memory erased upon getting there ands returned upon leaving if she succeeded, just to prove she could be of value. Gardevoir had reluctantly accepted, sending her there, which was when she woke up in Tiny Woods, found by Pikachu...

"I don't wanna leave..." she moaned again, "I want to stay longer... With my invaluable... Irreplaceable friend..." A voice suddenly filled her head.

"If this is really what you want... If you really feel this way...

Perhaps one day, you'll meet again."

* * *

Somewhere in the same time, in a dimension far away, a Riolu sighed. He had no idea... He had no idea what was going to happen to her, soon.

They had just set off down a rocky path, leading away from a place known as Temporal Tower. For some reason, the tower had been collapsing, and the planet would have been paralised if they hadn't have stepped in, collecting the five Time Gears, discovering the mysterious Hiden Land and fighting Dialga. The only problem was, she was from the furure, and she had changed time, from the past. Meaning her timeline no longer existed. She knew she was going to dissappear from existence, soon.

But she just couldn't tell him.

No, it would hurt too much. He'd never let her go... He paused, realising she wasn't following close by.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked. She was slient for a moment, before finally answering.

"...Nothing, Shinx. Coming." She hurried onward, following her companion away. However, she soon involentarily slowed down, her feet dragging. "(Why do I feel so heavy?)" she asked herself. "(Maybe... Maybe now that we've stopped the planet's paralisis, my own dissappearence is drawing near...)"

"Come on!" Shinx said, "Let's g- Wait... Catstar, what's happening to you?" She suddenly saw light before her vision, in delicate little bubbles, before closing her eyes. It was time.

"I'm so sorry I never told you before, Shinx. But when you were checking the Rainbow Stoneship... Dusknoir told me, and Grovyle confirmed it. Since we saved time, I'm from a future that no longer exists... Meaning I'm destined to dissappear. Forever."

"H-huh?" Shinx looked shocked and hurt. "What do you mean? Wh- aren't we friends?"

"Of course, Shinx. You'll always be my friend. Forever. Even when I don't exist, our friendship will be eternal. And remember, friends will come and friends will go, but keep them close to your heart and they never left your from the start... Take care. I... I..." she finally brought herself to say it. It was the end; she had to tell him, or she'd have no reason to care. "I l-" She didn't get chance to say anything as the light around her brightened. She would vanish soon. "(It's getting brighter...)" she said to herself, "(I won't get time to say anything, soon...) Just... Take care. You have to live! Tell everyone about this; don't let history repeat itself. Tell everyone you know and everyone you don't. I'll miss you... For all eternity..."

Shinx's eyes filled with tears. "I'll never forget you, Catstar! Even if the laws of reality state I will, I won't! That I swear! I'll live my life as you said to... Goodbye..." He broke down in tears as soon as she vanished. She wasn't coming back to him. Ever.

* * *

"(Huh?)" she thought to herself, "(I thought I dissappeared... Why am I consious?)" She soon realised, when her memories came back with a jolt. She'd get to remember what her human life was like before she would think no more...

She rememebered everything now. The memories seemed distant and unreal, but they were there. She'd lived in the Kanto Region, until the town was under attack, so they'd moved to Sinnoh. The family was hard to support, especially since she couldn't even remember her father. She lost so much... She'd rescued a Shinx from an abandoned lab and named him Sparx, and she'd cared for him. But the family still suffered.. Until the day she found the dimensional hole. It took her to another world, alone, where she befriended a Treeko and another human, who had also ended up in this world. Sadly, in both worlds, the planet was paralised. But together, they'd managed to find a way to save time from the past... At the cost of their existence. However, in desperation to turn the world away from the misery it was bow facing, they all agreed, on the search for the time gear locations. Treeko evolved to Grovyle, and the team headed out to the Passage Of Time, helped by Celebi. However, something happened on the way, some mysterious foe trying to attack Grovyle, so she'd shielded him. Which was when...

So. She had her memories back. Right before the end. But it was her time.

In mere moments, her life had suddenly never happened.


	2. Chapter 2

She blinked. She could just make out the outline of a pokémon in front of her... Sparx? That must mean... She was back. In the human world. Or was she...?  
"Pika!", a delighted Sparx cried. Catstar sighed, shouldering her long brown hair over her shoulder. Yes, she was back, and Pikachu, the one she knew in the other world at least, was far out of reach.  
"Come on, you, time to find out where we are!"  
"Pi... Pika!"  
"Sparx, wait up!" Too late; Sparx was already out of sght and following would be hard, but she began to chase him, anyway.

She moaned, her short-cropped black hair falling over her face. She blew it away from her eyes, then sat up, surprisingly not hurting, even though she was in a painful-looking position. Her still-blurred vision revealed a four-pointed star tipped tail vanishing into dense woods behins her... Sparx. Then suddenly she bagan to worry. Hadn't she been erased from history? Then... Why was she still alive? Before she had chance to think properly, she was knocked backwards, again falling to the ground as a fuzzy yellow pokemon darted past her. It was a pikachu.  
"Sparx, wait up!", the owner of the Pikachu yelled. The girl's jaw dropped and she stood up... Sparx? "(What's going on here? Oh well, looks like her pikachu ran off...) You! need he-" she stopped what she was saying almost as soon as she saw the face of the brown-haired girl, also gaping at her.  
"You- You're... You look like me! Oh my Arceus! Who are you?" they both exclaimed at the same time.  
"Catstar, now who the hell are you?" they both said, again in unison.  
The brunette double of Catstar finally managed to speak by herself, without Catstar also speaking. "Ok... How can you be me? This is so wierd!"  
"I'm freaking out too here!" Catstar cried, "Anyway, I think we should get away from here... Wait, was your Pikachu called Sparx?"  
"Yes... Why? And how did you know?"  
"Well, you kinda yelled out his name.. Also I have a Shinx called Sparx, he ran in there too..."  
"WHAT?" the brunette Catstar cried.

Ten minutes later, after exchanging information on what had happened to them in the past fifteen minutes, when they'd both woken up, they had set off in the forest, to find another clearing and discover a way out.  
"Is it just me, or do you feel like someone's watching us, Ebony?" the brown-haired Catstar asked. They had both settled on nicknames so if they met anyone, they could refer to them through the nickname.  
"Uh... Eve, I think you must be imagining things..."  
"Hmm... Maybe," Eve sighed.  
They both carried on walking, unaware of all the eyes staring at them from the dense trees surrounding them.

The huge creature thought about what had happened, just an hour before. Not that he cared anymore. He couldn't. He saw it all play through his mind, almost like seeing it through a window...

_He sighed. He was sure they were coming, and soon. All he could do was wait. As Arceus drifted down from the Hall Of Origin to the top of the Spear Pillar, he could sense them coming. He couldn't stop what would happen that day by escaping-no, he had to fight back and hope fate was on his side. He desended from the air and, armed with the one item he was sure would be able to help him.  
As the shadowy figure approached, staying in the dark and disguised as well as they could, they began to walk around Arceus, thinking he hadn't realised they were there. He had. Just before they struck, he spun around and used Judgement. An orb appeared near Arceus' head, then it shot like a flare into the sky. The foe lifted their head to look at the spectacular sight, looking like a fireworks as pink sparkles spread into the air. However, delight soon utrned to shock and fear as they realised, as the pink specks got closer, they weren'y a pretty shower of starts; they were small pink metiorites, heading straight for them! They began to run to what they thought was a safe distance, but only to find that it wasn't. Aceus had no choice but to use his special item... A Zap Plate. He took on a warm glow, his emeralds on him and his green eyes changint to an amber colour and his golden colouring changing to yellow. He let out a powerful roar as he launched a shockingly powerful Thunder into the sky, causing a heavy thunderstorm on impact with the clouds. However, the Thunder soon returned to the ground, hitting Arceus' attacker, but the storm raged on. The attacker collapsed, but refused to admit defeat. They rose back up again and Arceus could tell exacally what the agressor was thinking just by seeing how they were acting; 'I'll just have to push him off the edge of the mountain; it's all I can do; he's too powerful!' However, Arceus didn't hace any time to escape; he was still weak from launching such a powerful Thunder attack.  
"So," the agressor smirked, pushing Arceus to the ground, "I finally have you!"  
"So... You're going to push me off Spear Pillar, are you?"  
The attacker smirked. "And just why would I do that? I know you can fly, Arceus, I'm not exacally stupid. Besides, why would I kill you? There's so much more to it than that... I mean, you're the most powerful pokemon in the world, by all rights. I can use this now, can't I?"  
Arceus knew exacally what they meant, but decided to pretend to be clueless and hope for the best. "I-I don't know what you are talking about."  
"Oh, but you do, don't you? Does this look familiar to you?" they smirked, holding an item that was all too familiar to Arceus...  
"Impossible. I had that destroyed at least a milenium ago!"  
"Ah, but you see, that's where my friends come in," they grinned, more pairs of eyes appearing from the shadows, surrounding Arceus, "You see, we were able to recreate it, make another, more powerful than any of the crystals ever created..."  
"No..." moaned Arceus, his last thoughts..._

His last thoughts before he stopped caring about it. He heard his Master call, and he had big plans for Arceus...  
_'RETURN THEM. NOW.'_

Celebi woke up, confused. Her pink wings sparkled in the sun that she had been so mesmerised at just a few minutes ago, as she had looked at for the first time it with Grovyle just as... Just as they had begun to dissappear. Her mind was jumbled up too much and she couldn't make sense of any of it. How was she still here? Then again, she didn't recognise where they were; it was nowhere near where thay had been before.  
She heard a groaning and turned to see Grovyle struggle to stand up, rubbing his head.  
"Aww, I have a massive headache... But how are we still alive?"  
"I don't know."  
"Well, look around, Dusknoir and the Sableye are here, too."  
Celebi's stomach twisted into a tight knot of fear and anger for a second before remembering that Dusknoir and the others had decided to become a good pokémon, not long before they all dissappeared.  
"Well, Celebi," Grovyle began, "It looks like we're back. The question is, is Catstar...?"  
"I hope so."  
"But she isn't here."  
"Well, dear Grovyle, maybe she didn't notice us and left already. Or maybe she's in another part of the forest."  
"She's not the type to be un-observant, so I guess she's either..." he gulped, taking back that last thought, "Or she's just in another part of the forest, you're probably right."  
Celebi smiled. "Good, looks like you agree. Now, let's find a way outta here."


	3. Chapter 3

The black-haired girl looked around her. She was in an empty-looking world; all she could see around her was white. She couldn't even see the floor she was stood on. She decided to try to risk taking a step forward. As her foot left contact with where she was standing, she began to fall. She couldn't see the floor still, and worried she would be falling forever...  
Just when she came to a sharp halt, hovering in the air. She could sense someone else... But where were they? Eventually, a creature faded in before her eyes. "(w-wait she thought, 'is... is that _ARCEUS?_)" The creature seemed to read her mind.  
"Yes, I am Arceus."  
"But-"  
"I understand you have many questions, for example, why you are still alive."  
"Uh... Yeah... (how did he know?)"  
Arceus gave Catstar a small smile. "Are you forgetting who I am? I know a lot more than you think. Anyway, I was the one who brought you back into the world of life... But I think you've realised something, yes?"  
"There's another me..." she pondered, while Arceus was giving an encouraging smile. "So, in order to bring me back, there would be disaster if you returned me to my own world and time period, therefore you did the next best thing; you did just that, but into a paralel dimension!"  
"Exactly right," Arceus smiled, "You're smarter than I thought. Now, I have a task for you... Have you ever heard of the Imperium Crystals?"  
"No..."  
Catstar swore she saw rage fire up in Arceus' eyes for a second, but then it seemed to die down. "Oh... so you haven't... Well, they were created thousands of years ago. At the time, I thought only one existed, but it turned out there were more. These crystals helped to keep the world in balance, therefore me and the other legendaries were assigned to protect each. I thought I was the only one, so I was surprised when I discovered there were more. I had failed to guard my crystal well enough about a thousand years ago, so it was destroyed by a pokemon with evil intentions. However, someone came to me the other day, and they have gathered intelligence that is very helpful; there really are more."  
"But how does this concern me? " asked Catstar.  
"Ah, well, you see, I brought you back because I thought that you, Grovle, Celebi and even Dusknoir and his Sableye underlings could help me to retrieve these crystals."  
"But... Why? And why Dusknoir and the Sableye? They're evil!"  
"If you meet Grovyle and Celebi, they will explain everything that happened when Grovyle pushed himself and Dusknoir into that Dimensional Hole earlier; a lot did happen."  
"(How did he know about that?) Okay... So you think we can help. But... I don't know anything about the crystals! How can I possibly help?"  
Arceus held up a large crystal, glowing a pleasant shade of sky blue. "This is the crystal that my visitor managed to recover before. This is one of the many Imperium Crystals that litter both the human world and the pokémon world. I hear you have a special ability?"  
"The Dimensional Scream? Maybe it can help me, I guess... So, I guess if you're suggesting I use my ability, you have no leads as to where the crystals are?"  
"Correct; we don't. Also, Sparx came to this dimension with you; the very Sparx who you trained in your trainer days. I believe he ran with this Dimension's Sparx into the forest?"  
"Yeah. Thanks. Okay, so I have another question. Am I dreaming? Or is this real?  
"You are seeing this as a dream, but I am perfectly real."  
Arceus began to fade from the white world. She could feel herself fading too. "Wait! You still haven't told me what the crystals do!" she gasped, trying to get herself heard before she awoke. It was too late; he had vanished.

* * *

She awoke with a start. "Ebony, you okay?" asked the brunette Catstar.  
"Yeah... How long was I asleep, Eve?"  
"I woke up about an hour before you. I think someone's watching us, though..."

* * *

Meanwhile, the Sableye were watching from the bushes. "Fools!" Yelled Dusknoir to them, "Stop this at once! Remember, before you dissappeared you agreed to accept your fate and come to be good!"  
One of the Sableye looked at him. "But... Master Dusknoir... That pokémon in my dream, which I believe you saw, too, told us all to look for the crystals! I'm not following his commands! I'll do what I want, and that crystal did look tasty! If you won't let me do what I want, fine. I'm not going to listen to you, either!" At this comment, the other Sableye shouted their agreement.  
"He's right!"  
"I won't be commanded!"  
"My life is my own!"  
"I'll do what I want!"  
Finally, Dusknoir gave up reasoning with them. "That girl with the black hair is Catstar, I'd recognise her anywhere. It seems she's a human again... She's the Catstar I remember most. I have no idea who that other girl is, but if you hurt either of them, you have me to worry about!"  
The Sableye laughed at this comment, and ran further into the bushes. Dusknoir began to chase them, crashing through the undergrowth as he ran.

* * *

"Did you hear that?" Eve asked, "Someone's there!"  
Ebony put her finger to her lips. Ssssh! I'll go check it out; I think I saw who it was and I recognise them. Don't let your guard down."  
"But-" Eve began, but her black-haired double was already out of earshot. She began to run after her.

"(Just as I suspected... But how did they get here?...) Hey, you purple faced pixies!"  
The sableye spun around. "Sable!" one cried, followed bvy the others, who immedietly began to chese her.  
"(Oh, darn. Forgot, I'm human again, and in the actual Human world it's impossible for a human to understand pokémon speech... I'll just pretend I can hear them...) So... Where's Dusknoir? He gunna back you up, eh?"  
"Sable!"  
Catstar couldn't tell what they were saying, but she could tell by their body language that they were indicating he was nearby. "Come out and play, Dusknoir! You're pathetic! I don't think you're even worth battling, seeing how we beat you down so fast the last time! (What am I doing? I don't even have any pokémon to battle him with... He's going to attack me and then what...?)"  
"_DUSK!_"  
Finally, the ghost type came crashing out of the bushes and towards her. Without even turning to see what he'd do next, she turned and ran. Even if she felt angry and ready to fight, common sense took over and she knew without any pokémon to battle with, she was as good as doomed. As she ran back to where the other Catstar had been, her stomach churned when she noticed her double was gone.  
"Catstar!" she yelled, "(she couldn't have gotten that far...) Catstar!"  
She felt another presence right behind her and turned to see the brunette as she fell into a run alongside her.  
"Catstar, I was coming to see what was happening... I'm curious you know."  
"Just like me... I guess that attribute about us is the same in both dimensions, Eve."  
The brunette smiled. "Must be."  
As the two continued to run, the forest became denser and they were soon crashing through undergrowth and small plants that hadn't quite won the struggle for sunlight and had wilted a little. Both human girls could hear the Sableye and Dusknoir gaining on them.  
"You know Quick Attack, Eve?"  
"Of course, why, do you want me to help take them out?"  
"If you ca-" realisation suddenly washed over Ebony. "Wait, we're not pokémon anymore! We can't use moves!"  
Eve slapped herself on her forehead. "Of course, how could I forget that? I'm so nieve..."  
Ebony automatically placed her hand around the shoulder of her double as they paused to catch their breath. "No you're not... Even if you are, don't admit it! Admitting being weak is stupid! Always pretend to be the most awesome kid around!" She paused. "...In fact, don't. I'm the most awesome kid around."  
The brunette slapped the black-haired girl's arm away. "You seem so sassy... Besides, I am you if you haven't noticed yet!"  
The last comment resulted in a giggle from Ebony. "You're right... Anyway, I think we lost them."  
Their heads simultaneously snapped back as they heard rusling from behind them. "SABLE!" they heard as the sableye began to catch up.  
"Or not. looks like we've stayed here too long. Eve, come on."  
As the two Catstars ploughed through the forest at full speed, Eve couldn't help but ask a question.  
"So... Who are those guys? You act like you know them."  
"I've had a few rough encounters with them in the pokémon world."  
"They seemed to recognise you though... If it was when you were a Riolu, how would they know?"  
"Well... They truth be told, I've lived most my life in the pokémon world, even as a human."

"Yeah... Me and my mother used to live in Kanto, but we started to run, as someone from Pallet Town, where we lived at the time, had tried to change time, so they were on Primal Dialga's hit list. We knew the whole town was at risk, so we tried out best to evacuate everybody.  
Not everybody listened.  
We ran away with as many people as we could, and arrived at Sinnoh. That's where I met Sparx."  
"Tell me."  
"Sparx was trapped in a lab. We think that when the lab was ransacked, who knows when, the poor Shinx hadn't managed to escape. His mother was trying her best to care for him; we could tell the Luxray nearby HAD to be his mother."  
"Go on."  
"I saved him, and me and mum took him in. I took the Shinx, who I named Sparx. Mother kept the Luxray, who she named Storm.  
We were wandering in the empty streets one day, when we saw some sort of disturbance, but it was like an energetic blue kinda colour. It seemed to be a portal to somewhere. Me and mother thought it would be better than any place like this... But Storm sensed the danger and immedietly paralised her with Thunder Wave. She couldn't move and Sparx really wanted to stop me too... But he didn't know that move. He couldn't do anything as I ran into the portal, unaware until the last second that I was alone... Then, it was too late.  
As I got safely through the portal, I noticed it was nowhere that I recognised. Sadly, the planet was paralised here too. I discovered I was in-"  
"Wait, the planet, paralised? i'm afraid I don't follow."  
Ebony sighed. "I guess the world was still moving perfectly well in your dimension. The planet was paralised, meaning no wind, no daytime, no plants growing... Eternal darkness, in both worlds, human and pokemon.  
"Okay... Carry on, please."  
"I discovered that although I was human, I could communicate with the pokémon here. I soon discovered I was in the pokémon world.  
I also met Treeko soon.  
We became good friends and we worked together to gather intelligence on how to go back in time to stop the planet's paralysis from ever happening and how to get around the fact that Temporal Tower, the place where all of this had started, was guarded by its protector, Dialga, at that point known as Primal Dialga.  
We found out that we could free time by gathering the five components needed to save time; the time gears. We used my special ability to find them, the ability being the dimensional scream-"  
"What's that?"  
"Are you going to keep interupting me like that? Anyway, it was an ability I'd had since I was young, it gave visions of things when I touched certain objects... The visions all seemed to revolve around green-blue gears, but I had no idea why. I later found out that these were called time gears, which when placed in Temporal Tower before the planet is paralised would restore time everywhere. The Dimensional Scream ability only works with the presence of a trusted pokémon partner, and alerts the gifted person to the location of the time gears.  
Eventually, we had enough intel and went to see an old friend of ours, Celebi. Treeko had evolved into Grovyle at this point and the three of us planned our way to get to the past. Celebi took us to a place called The Passage Of Time, located on a high plateu in a place called Dusk Forest. However, we were followed by Dusknoir and the Sableye - the pokémon chasing us at the moment.  
Celebi told us both she'd be okay, that we had to go through before it was too late. We did so, but encountered turbulence whilst travelling. I'm pretty sure something tried to attack Grovyle, so I shielded him. I felt myself slipping away as I fell through time...  
Eventually meeting Shinx as I woke up in a world of time and light, on a beach. I had transformed into a Riolu. I had no memory, so we formed an Exploartion Team and became the greatest of combinations. However, I soon met Grovyle and Dusknoir, Dusknoir pretending to a be a good pokémon and claiming Grovyle was a wanted outlaw from the future. Our team actually helped in his capture, but were dragged into my time with him by Dusknoir. When we were all about to dive into the passage of time for the second time in my life, I was told about me being Grovyle's partner before I was a Riolu.  
We soon managed to escape back to the past but now much more knoledgeable. We went to the Hidden land after retrieving all five time gears again and faced Dialga, who was beginning to turn Primal as Temporal Tower was collapsing. Before the face off, Grovyle... Well, he sacrificed himself to get Dusknoir away, dragging them both to the future. We faced Dialga and restored time, but since we had changed the future, restoring time everywhere, me, Grovyle, Celebi, Dusknoir and the Sableye were from a future that didn't exist anymore. So we were erased from history. For the last seconds I saw Shinx, he looked heartbroken and crushed. But I could do nothing. That's when you found me out cold in this forest."  
"Wierd... Well, why are you still here?"  
"I... Don't know." Ebony decided it was best to keep her dream to herself.  
"Sable!" they heard a cry from behind them. A bit of frenzied rusting, then it became more muffled.  
"I think they've been held up... Now let's find a good hiding place. Oh over there Ebony, a cave!"  
As the girls rushed towards the cave, they didn't notice the big pair of red eyes staring at them as they entered through the large hole in the rock.


	4. Chapter 4

As she stared at the two girls who had almost identical faces, she stepped back from the shadows of the cave. The two girls gaped at her, mesmerised.

* * *

"A... Zorua? I've heard of them from some of my friends who moved to the Unova region but..."  
"Wow... Is that a SHINY Zorua?! Wow, it is, Eve!"  
The Zorua stepped forwards and the three blue ovals on her head began to glow. There was a large amount of light and it was hard to see the pokémon. Then, when the light faded out, she had transormed into a convincing human illusion, looking like a Zorua gijinka.  
"I took this form so I could speak to you... You are being chased, yes?"  
"Yes... Are you a zorua?"  
She closed her eyes. "Yes... I am a Zorua. My name is Numar... You are Catstar... And Catstar, correct?"  
"How did you know?"  
"I've been watching you from a distance... I believe I can help you escape from those pokémon."  
"How?" Eve asked curiously.  
"Well, I can create an illusion of a dead end for you, so they don't notice this cave... If you want."  
"Thank you, but why are you helping us?" aked Ebony.  
"I'm helping because I can, and because I believe-" she walked up to Ebony, "that you have something to do, correct?"  
"How did you know?"  
"The details don't matter, but since you asked, I'll tell you. You see, I've had a vision, in the form of a dream. Now, are you two just going to wait at the entrance of the cave and get killed, or are you going to come in?"  
"Good point," Eve said.

* * *

"So... The Imperium Crystals... Yes, have heard of them. I don't know much, but I'll tell you all I know. You see, they were created for a purpose. That purpose happens to be-" Numar was interupted by a loud bang echoing through the nearby trees. "Okay, now's not the time I guess...Let's run!"

The three of them began to run, the Zorua's illusions fading away as she became a pokémon again and the cave came back into plain sight. There were about ten pokémon crashing through the trees towards them, looking very annoyed.

Eve gasped when she saw what they were.

"But... They're Misdreavus! There's too many, and how do we get away from so many ghost types?!"

"Well... We can run... I wish we were pokémon again though, Eve... Then maybe we could use Odour Sleuth to weaken them! If we had any other way to escape..."

The Misdreavus were catching up. Numar stared at them, before turning her attention back to the humans in front of her. She turned back into a human with another illusion. "You two... I'm going to distract them."

Both humans were shocked. "(!) Numar! No!"

She closed her eyes. "It's the only way. Find the crystals. Get to Arceus. When you can, go back to my cave; I have managed to retrieve all of the crystals in this world myself. I've had a lot of time to take all ther treasure I've wanted and in that dream I saw what the crystals look like... I've got them all, I think. Get yourselves to the pokémon world; that way, you can get all those crystals and bring them to Arceus. We can still keep the world's balance..."

"Numar, no..." moaned Eve, "In the short time we talked, I really appreciated your help. Don't leave us now..."

"Go. Go now, or my sacrifice won't do any of you any good. Besides-" she giggled, "I'm not going to back down from these cloth-headed freaks that easily... Don't worry about me you two!"

A thought struck the black-haired Catstar. "(Where have I heard this before...? ...Wait, of course! It was when... When me, Shinx and Grovyle escaped back to the past! Celebi said the same thing! ...Kinda. Wow, that makes me wonder, how are those two; Grovyle and Celebi? Did Arceus appear to them, too? Are they back?)" Both Catstars had no time to think as they charged through the forest, coming to its edge sooner than they thought they would. They could hear the cries of the Zorua, illusion gone, and the Misdreavus as they prepared for a fight of huge proportion. Meanwhile two pokémon could see the whole thing from a distance as they carefully picked their way through the forest.

* * *

"Wait... Grovyle, is that Catstar?!"

Grovyle spun around to look at where Celebi was pointing. He gasped. "Yes! That's her! She's human again... But who's that girl who she's running with?"

"I don't know, my dear Grovyle. Should we follow them?"

The two pokémon began to follow the girls, who never noticed a thing. They seemed to be out of the forest now and were running as if their lives depended on it. "(Phew)," thought Celebi to herself, "(At least now they're safe from whatever was chasing them... Oof, they're faster than I thought... Oh well...) Grovyle, speed up a little, or we won't be able to keep-"

Grovyle stopped in his tracks. He stared at Catstar and the other girl. "Celebi... Oh, Arceus, look at that girl Catstar's travelling with!"

Celebi could now clearly see her face. "But that's-"

"That's what I thought too," Grovyle whispered. "Well, I never learned everything about her life in the human world before she came to our world, anyway. Maybe she has a twin."

"Maybe," Celebi said quietly. As the two carried on, it was Catstar's turn to stop. She began to speak, but neither pokémon could quite hear the words. They both approached slowly, hiding behind a tree as they leaned in to easedrop on the conversation.

"-told us that they were in her cave! We can't dissappoint Arceus! We have to get the crystals!" Catstar was saying.

"(!)The crystals?! Arceus, too?! Darling, I think we've all had the same dream!" Celebi gasped.

"Sssh, they'll hear us!" scolded Grovyle in a hushed tone. "Anyway, we should still be listening to this. Wait... _Did you just call me DARLING?!_" Celebi waved her hand airily, dismissing the last comment.

"But... Those Misdreavus..." warned the brunette human.

"Well, they'll have thought we're already outta the forest now, besides, Numar'll have sent them packing by now I expect!" was Catstar's reply.

"Well... Okay."

The two girls turned around. The two grass-type pokémon followed, being careful to ensure they stayed hidden.  
"Is someone following us, or is it just me?" Catstar asked the other girl, who gasped.

"I don't feel anything, but if you do... Hurry up!"  
Grovyle and Celebi exchanged glances. Had they really been that obvious?

Catstar giggled. "Wow, you really are nieve! I was kidding, let's go!" Both hidden pokémon breathed a sigh of relief. So, they were still in the clear. The girls had finnally reached their destination; a small cave entrance loomed before them.

* * *

"So... Let's go, then Ebony."

They both walked back into the cave, a small amount of woodsmoke still spiraling into the air after a fire the trio had made earlier as they'd exchanged tales. Ebony now noticed something she hadn't before; there were a large variety of objects littering the floor; from coins and crowns to discarded pizza boxes and half eaten poffins. Finally they came across...

"Imperium Crystals!" cried the black-haired version of Catstar, "I'm sure these are it; I'd recognise those anywhere after Arceus showed me that one!"

"Good," said the other girl, "We need to get outta here before those Misdreavus realise we're back. Hey, that reminds me, I wonder if Numar is safe...?"

* * *

Both pokémon looked as the girls returned from the cave. Both had their arms filled with sky-blue crystals.

"(Imperium Crystals...)," thought both Grovyle and Celebi simultaneously. They both watched as the girls walked into a forest clearing. Celebi noticed as

Grovyle looked up at the sky. It was getting dark out.

As usual, the duo followed Catstar and the girl as they scanned the perimeter of the clearing. Judging it safe to stay in, Catstar began to walk out of the clearing.

...Right up to where Grovyle and Celebi were hiding.

* * *

As Ebony walked up the grassy slope just past the clearing in the forest, she felt something soft beneath her feet. As she looked down, she saw some soft dirt.

"(It's probably just from a Diglett or a Dugtrio burrowing nearby)," she thought to herself, "(nothing to worry about...)".  
She walked onwards, hoping it wouldn't rain as she ploughed on through the forest to get some firewood.

* * *

Grovyle grabbed her arm again as he pushed them out of the ground. Celebi spat dirt out of her mouth in disgust, but she was still relieved that Grovyle knew Dig; it had gotten them out of some tight situations before.

"So... Now we wait," Grovyle said slowly. The two moved from their spot to another on the opposite side of the tiny clearing; going around rather than cutting through so they weren't noticed by Catstar's new friend.

It was late by the time Catstar had returned, and the other girl had created the base for a fire. Both humans worked together to build the fire and had to light a fire the old fashioned way; rubbing sticks together.

"I've heard of this before, lighting a fire without an Easylight or a fire type" Eve said, "It's really hard, but if there's no fire type to get things to burn, how else can people start a fire, without an easylight? Besides, Pikachu taught me how to do this once, when we were on the run." Ebony gave her a questioning look. "I'll explain some other time, the important thing now is getting the crystals." They had finally started the flame, much to the delight of both of them. They both warmed up, close to the fire. Eventually, both went to sleep.

"We should rest, too," Grovyle said suddenly to her. "I'll stay here, you go around to the other side of the clearing, so we can help if there's a threat nearby. If we're on opposite sides, we can have them covered." Celebi nodded, getting to her feet from crouching and walked around the trees to find a spot to sleep in.

**Author's note: Numar belongs to NumarDarkwhisper on DeviantART.**


	5. Chapter 5

That night, Catstar had another dream.

She was alone in the white space again and this time she was prepared for falling. She kept her feet rooted to the same spot.

"H-hello?" she asked curiously, waiting for Arceus to come. "Anybody there?"

Her voice echoed in the vast white void and her ears started ringing. Finally, he appeared before her, fading into his surroundings.

"Yes. I am here. Now, I believe you have all the crystals needed here..."

"Yes, I do," Celebi replied to Arceus' question. "Well, not me but... Well, Catstar has them, and we're close by."

"Good. Now, phase two of the plan begins..."

"Phase two?" Grovyle asked curiously. "What's phase two?"

"Now, we need you to collect the crystals in the pokémon world in this dimension... Then you will have to collect the ones in your own dimension... In both the human and pokémon worlds."

"Oh, okay."

"But... There is something else..."

"Why? What's the problem?" Dusknoir asked. He took a step closer to Arceus, but he began to fall. Arceus drifted down to where he was as he continuously fell. Eventually, Dusknoir stopped falling, hovering on the spot. Arceus came to a halt before him.

"The problem is, there is a group of pokémon... A group of pokémon who don't want you to manage to retrieve all the crystals. They are a clan of Misdreavus, led by a singele Mismagius."

"Who is this Mismagius fool and why doesn't he want the crystals to be retrieved?

Arceus smiled. "You're not the only one to ever ask me that, Catstar. The thing is, how many of us judge? The Mismagius is female, and she stands against me because she wants the world to fall to ruin. What happens when there are no crystals, you ask?"

"No, not really," Catstar grumbled.

"Oh well, too bad; I'm going to tell you anyway. Nothing much happens if the crystals are destroyed; that's why I wasn't too bothered when mine was destroyed. However, much like the time gears, they are a recovery mechanism for when... Something happens."

"Which is...?"

"Now, now, I thought you weren't intersted in this, Catstar."

A low growl escaped Catstar's throat. "Skip to the point."

"The crystals-they have a special purpose. They will prevent the fabric of space from being torn apart. In this world, a being called Palkia watches over space from The Spear Pillar. He is one of the Creation Trio who live there. The Spear Pillar is at the very top of a mountain called Mount Coronet, in Sinnoh. I also happen to live there, but I live in the Hall Of Origin. In the other world, the pokémon world as you would call it, each of the creation trio; Dialga, Palkia and Giratina, have their own unique domain. Dialga lives at Temporal Tower, in a place called the hidden land, but I'm sure-"

"Can you hurry up with this story? Dialga, Temporal Tower, Hidden land that can only be gotten to by a trip across the Sea Of Time, taken by Lapras... I already know all that!"

Arceus frowned. "Hmph. What I was going to say before you interupted, was, 'But I'm sure you already know that since you are one of the rare ones who ever got to go there, and even better, you didn't go for treasure or anything, you just had the world's best interests at heart."

Catstar looked down awkwardly. Arceus ignored this and continued.

"Anyway, Palkia lives in a place called Spacial Rift, but I'm afraid that's all the detail I will go into about that. Normally I wouldn't delve into any detail about the domain of any of the creation trio, but since you've met Dialga there, there is no point hiding that. Giratina's domain is Distortion World. I sent her there many milenia ago, to punish her for a terrible crime. That's as far as I will go with that story. Anyway, back to Palkia... Spacial Rift has an invisible layer to it, so it works as the atmosphere for it. It is also what keeps the world in check. If that atmosphere is shredded, the universe is slowly destroyed. If this happens, the Imperium Crystals are the solution. They are needed from both dimensions to show the one who is trying to save the world can be creative and travel through space. Therefore, all fifty crystals are needed. You have eleven, another fourteen are needed in this dimension, in the pokémon world.

"(This story doesn't seem very convincing; I can see many reasons why it is odd... But I'm having a dream that's a vision with ARCEUS HIMSELF TALKING TO ME, so I guess it's only as wierd as everything that's happened to me so far... I should probably ask him about all of this though, there's something I don't understand...) How can I get there? And why are the crystals needed right now? Has Spacial Rift been damaged?" I asked.

Arceus seemed to look annoyed for a moment, and he seemed to flicker into something else for about half a second, but Catstar dismissed it as her imagination. Feeling consious in dreams made her feel surprisingly tired, despite the fact that she was asleep.

"All I know is they must be found..." Arceus was fading, now. Catstar knew he wouldn't hear if she asked anyting else, so she didn't bother.

Catstar woke up. She could hear bird pokémon chirping around her and she could smell woodsmoke. She thought she heard someone shout, then footsteps coming towards her. She shot bolt upright and rubbed her eyes, looking to see where the potential threat was. Instead, she saw the other version of her, the Catstar of this dimension, who they had both nicknamed 'Eve'. 'Ebony' was her nickname. Eve waved her arms about as she approached.

"Hey, Eb! A couple of pokémon were just outside the clearing, but I chased them off I think. Wait... You look thoughtful..." she gasped suddenly. "Oh, have you had another dream?"

"Yes, I have. It seems we have to go to the pokémon world, now. There are fourteen more crystals more to collect, then we have to go to my dimension."

"Oh... Okay, then."

They both set off after a quick snack of some berries. They managed to sum up by the types of berries growing in the area that they were in Sinnoh.

"Y'know," Eve said through a mouthful of Oran Berry, "If anyone found out that we were snacking on berries, they'd think we were crazy! Most people would never dream of eating these, but after spending time as a pokémon, I have a taste for them, now."

Ebony laughed while pulling off a segment of Oran from the blue piece of fruit. "Me too!"

They carried on walking for the most part of the day, picking berries as they did so, until they noticed that they had been in the forest at the Southwest Sinnoh Border. They reached Twinleaf Town within minutes after getting out of the forest.

"Wow, right near home! Okay, remember, if anyone says 'Catstar', they mean me. For now, you're 'Ebony', okay? Like before, only we have to make them think it's your name. Also, if we see anyone I know well, keep your head down and stay out of sight. If they see your face... That won't be a problem around strangers, though. If we see strangers, we can pretend we're twins." Ebony nodded and the two walked into town.

Celebi held her hand to her head. It was pounding after being yelled at by Catstar's friend. Of course, she hadn't been able to understand what they were saying, but she had seemed pretty nieve as they had squealed and pretended to be afraid, running into the bushes. She thought they had fled, when in fact they had just hid themselves again.

"Urgh... Stupid kid. Although, I can't really blame her; I blame myself. If I had focused on hiding more rather than just being comfortable sleeping, I wouldn'tve been noticed, and you wouldn'tve come out of your hiding place to defend me."

Graovyle smiled warmly. "Don't blame yourcelf, Cel. You were great, in my opinion. Now, let's keep following; I've never been to this world, in our dimension or not so we'd have no idea of where to search for them if we lose them, not even if we were told the name of the place and the route to go on, because we've never gone to the places or the routes!"

"You drag your explanations on a lot, Grovyle," giggled Celebi.

They managed to follow the duo to a place with steps leading up. Waiting until Catstar and her friend were up the stairs, both pokémon climbed up and waited for them to be out of range for them to be sensed by the girls.

"Mount Coronet?" asked Catstar, just within earshot. "Where's that? Do you know? I've not been in Sinnoh very long when we fled there."

"Oh," the other girl said, seemingly delighted to educate soemone. "Well, it's right in the center of Sinnoh. Just stay with me, I've just realised how we can scale that thing fastest."

Catstar followed the girl onward. Gryovyle and Celebi followed, keeping their distance.

Catstar walked with her double towards Eternia City. She was so glad that Ebony didn't know her way around Sinnoh that well; she felt important for a change. It would take several hours to walk, and then they had to be careful of Eternia Forest; not many ventured through in the dark due to myths and legends circulating about the place, mainly about the Old Chateu right near Eternia. Many people said it was haunted, and some even claimed to have explored it in late hours and seen the ghosts of either a little girl or a butler. One even claimed to have battled a strong ghost and eletric type plasma-like pokémon, orange and glowing with blue electricity. Most of it was dismissed as rumours, but the part about the pokémon was mostly taken seriously. However, the pokémon was never caught because most people were scared about the ghosts. Thankfully, it was about midday and they were probebly going to reach Eternia way before dark.

Abouit an hour later, they arrived in Eternia City. They went to the store immediately to gather supplies like food and water, but also they got themselves some poké-balls in case they got the chance for a capture or two. They both agreed that they thought of pokémon more as equals now, after being pokémon themselves for a while, but sometimes captures were essential.

"Okay, now to the bike store... Ah, here it is!" Eve said cheerfully, seeing a shop with bike holders outside. They pushed open the door and entered.

About half of the room was filled with bikes. The rest of the room consisted of a counter, two tables, probably for if you were ordering a bike because there were none in stock, and the reast was empty. As both Catstars walked up to the counter, the shopkeeper greeted them.

"Ah, Catstar! Good to see you, and than you for helping me that time before. Are you here to buy a bike for your friend? Who is this kid, anyway? I've never seen her around here before."

Eve smiled. "Hello, sir. This is Ebony and actaully, we're both here for bikes. You see, I... Kinda lost the bike you gave me before... Sorry."

The man didn't look as if he minded. "Not to worry, girls. Take two, for free! What colours do you want? I've got some lovely pink bikes for two lovely-"

Ebony interupted him. "Sorry, could I have a blue bike? I wanna see which ones you have."

"I kinda wanna see which brown bikes you have," Eve said, suddenly understanding what her double was meaning. The shopkeeper frowned.

"Uh... Okay... Sure. Wait here, I'll bring in what we have."

As he walked out of the room, Ebony took her chance to ask Eve a question. "Uh... How do you know him?"

"Oh, I saved him from a tight spot before. You see, there was this team of ruffians called Team Galactic who were stealing people's pokemon, and they gave him some trouble."

"Oh.. Okay."

The man came back, wheeling in two blue bikes. He set them down in the empty space in the room, then went back in the back to get the rest. Once he'd finished collecting all of the bikes, fifteen in total (seven brown bikes, eight blue), he stood in front of the two of them.

"Well?"

"Well what?" Eve said quietly, spacing out.

"The bikes!"

Eve snapped back to attention. "Oh, right! Um..." She looked at each bike carefully, before seeing a bike in brown and a lighter, graying brown. "Oh! That one!"

The shopkeeper smiled. "Catstar, you have a good eye for detail. That there is the five-gear Easyzoom comfort bike, in the colour known as Eevee-Brown, perfect for Eevee fans. Do you like eevees?

Eve smiled. "Yeah, I do..."

"Great." He turned to the other Catstar. "And you, Ebony, was it? What bike do you want?"

Catstar had a long look at all eight bikes. One seemed very boyish, so she avoided that. One had pink glitter all over it and a chibi piplup on the front. She even saw one with a sableye with a lime-green scarf around its neck on one of the handles, with the letters 'TP' on it. She didn't know what 'TP' stood for, but she didn't go for that one. Eventually, she saw it. The perfect bike.

"I want THAT ONE." She pointed at the bike, a plain blue and gray one with gray handles and a gray seat, streaked with a single blue slash-effect line.

The man frowned. "That?! That's a two-gear fasta bike. Riolu-Blue. Now, It's not actually that fast, I suggest you look at THIS one," he said, pointing towards a blue and orangey-red bike. "Five Gear Ultraspeed Comfort bike. Totodile-Blue. Now, this one is much be-"

"I said I want that one."

The shopkeeper's frown increased. "Okay then. I guess you must really like that colour. I don't know why you don't want a more advanced bike, but ah well. Let me just take them outside for you; you can have them free of charge."

The man steered the bikes outside of the shop and both Catstars followed.

"Pleasure foing business with you two."

"Thank you. Cya."

They both rode off together, Eve leading, off to Mount Coronet much faster than they would've done if they didn't have bikes. Of course, since Ebony had the slower bike, Eve stayed in Second-gear.

"Urgh." Celebi groaned, trying to keep up with their friends. She turned to Grovyle. "We need to hurry up, but how can we get there so fast? I mean, I know you can run as fast as they can ride, but what about me?"

Grovyle chuckled. "Well, fly. You can catch up from above them!"

Celebi smiled to herself. Yes, Grovyle was a quick-thinker. "Oh, good idea."

They both headed off towards Mount Coronet with Catstar and Catstar, unknown to both.

Meanwhile, in the Hall Of Origin, Arceus was getting new orders. He was told that the Sableye he had been entrusted to convince gather the crystals had gone rogue and had to be eliminated. He immediately head out for their elimination. _

Finally, they reached the mouth of the mountain. "So, where next?" the black-haired human asked.

"Well, we go through here, then there will be some rocks in the way of the path... Oh-" Eve cursed loudly. "Um... Well, we'll have to climb over the rocks since we don't have any HMs or pokemon."

The two began to run into the cave, jumping over small boulders and helping each other over the larger ones. They soon came across an unusually huge boulder, about the size of Catstar.

"Oh, great. Okay, Eve, What do we do now?"

She looked up at it. "I'm guessing you're more athletic than me; your time as a Riolu must've helped with that; I'll help you climb t the top of the boulder; it should support your weight and not roll away becauses it's not as if you're heavy."

"But what about you?"

"Trust me on this."

"Uh... Okay..." Ebony replied, climbing on Eve's shoulders as she lowered herself. Eve manged to hoist her up. "Okay, what now?"

Eve took a moment to think. "Hm... Well, reach out; I'll grab your hands. Pull me up."

Ebony held her hands out, shaking slightly, afraid of falling from such a height. Eve clasped her hands. "Great. Now, pull me up."

The weight unsettled Ebony's balance a little and she began to fall. Suddenly, both dimension's Catstars heard a agasp from behind them, followed by two voices crying out.

"No! Catstar!"

Ebony closed her eyes, thinking she was done for, but just before she hit the ground, expecting to break her leg, she instead felt something soft and fuzzy around her. She opened her eyes to see-

"S-sparx?"


	6. Chapter 6

Catstar closed her eyes, expecting to feel a painful thump to the ground, or worse, was shocked when she felt herself being caught by someone that wasn't her brown-haired double, nicknamed Eve. It was a furry something. She had just previouly heard what sounded like multiple voices yelling out "No!" and she wondered who had just caught her. She opened her eyes to see...

"Sp-sparx?"

The Shinx nodded. "Yeah, I'm here." He looked to his left. Catstar looked, too, to see Eve embracing a Pikachu. She guessed that was the other Sparx.

"Yeah, I'm the same Sparx you trained for all those years."

"At the abandoned lab?" she asked. Something didn't feel right to her, but in her dizziness ity was impossible to tell what.

Sparx nodded. "I just want to say... Sorry I haven't ever been able to talk to you before. Later I'll tell you all about why I was at the lab and the rest, but now isn't the time. For now, just let me tell you... You have no HMs, or any pokémon, for that matter. It was a stupid risk coming here! Now, Come on, Pika thinks he knows another way to the top."

"Pika?" Catstar asked, wondering who Pika was.

"Oh, the other Sparx' nickname. I'm nicknamed Star, for now, because of my tail. One of us for our name, one for our appearence."

Catstar, aka Ebony, smiled to herself. "Yes, same for us two. I'm nicknamed Ebony, for my black hair. She's nicknamed Eve because in the Pokémon world, she was an Eevee." Suddenly, she realised what was bugging her. "Hey! How can you speak?!"

"Well, speaking of the pokémon world, it leads on perfectly to the explanation. As a pokémon, you knew our language. Part of that knowledge has stayed with you. Also, I know a bit of your language. The other Shinx taught me because-" he blushed a little, obviously knowing something he'd rather not say, but saying it anyway. "Shinx said you'd talk in your sleep."

Ebony frowned as little. "That's not something to be embarrased about. And wow, I never knew I talked in my sleep."

Star changed the subject quickly. "So... Yeah. We're getting outta this place and then we're going to meet Shinx and Pikachu. Both found a way to the human world, so we're gunna go get them, now."

Eve finished her conversation with Pika and leaped into Ebony and Star's conversation, instead. "Why? Where are you guys staying?"

Pika took his chance to talk. "In a forest clearing in Eternia Forest. Since I've lived in Sinnoh half my life, I know the way around a lot more than the others. We're staying in that Old Chateu near the city tonight so we can be sa-"

A terrified-sounding Eve quickly interupted with an ear shredding "NO!"

Everyone else covered their ears. "Why?" asked Pika.

"Don't you know?! There's ghosts there!"

From what Ebony could tell, their reaction was not what she expected. Everyone burst out laughing.

"Ghosts?! Bah! No such thing!"

"Ghost-type pokemon, yes. real ghosts?! Eh, no."

"Aww, you crack me up with just how nieve you are, Eve!"

Eve folded her arms angrilly. "Well, fine! Don't believe me, but there's also a very tough ghost and electric type pokémon there! No-one has ever beaten it and not many even dare!" Everyone's laughter was cut short.

"Uh..." Star stammered, struggling to find something to say. "Hey, Pika, I think the clearing's safe enough."

The four friends headed out of the cave. Ebony swore she saw the retreating shadows of pokémon just rounding the corner, though.

Both Celebi and Grovyle nearly jumped out of their skin as the four they were following began to turn around and go back the ay they came. They both shot out of the cave as fast as they could, dodging Zubats as they ran, but were sure Catstar had seen them, and maybe the Shinx. Celebi was pretty sure the Shinx wasn't the very same Shinx who had become Catstar's partner when she lo9st her memory, but they still seemed to share a connection. Finally, she had the name of the other girl. Eve. There was something troubling her, though.

"Hey, Grovyle? Do you think they meant it about.. Y'know... Them both being Catstar?"  
Grovyle looked thoughtful for a second before grabbing Celebi's hand and dragging her away from the path, behind the trees.

"What are you doing?!" she demanded in a hushed tone.

"Ssssh! Quiet! They're coming!"

"Oh." Celebi was quiet as the four walked out of the mountain's cave entrance. The Shinx stopped, turned to his friends and ran on ahead, out of sight of the original group.

Her heart nearly stopped when Star, turned to face them.

"Don't worry; I won't tell, as long as you tell me who you are. Don't worry, I'm Catstar's previous partner, before even the other Shinx. I'm not some traitor."

Celebi could tell Grovyle was annoyed; he was Catstar's partner way before anyone he knew of and he didn't like to be told he was a liar.

"I'm Catstar's PREVIOUS PARTNER, actually. The name's Grovyle, and this is Celebi. We're friends of Catstar's. We're following because we want to help if we can and we're not sure if we should reveal ourselves, yet."

Star nodded. No arguments, nothing. He didn't even deny Grovyle being Catstar's partner. "I was her partner in the human world. I guess I can trust you two, when I gather food for us guys I'll get enough for you guys, too, that way you can stay on our tails and not have to worry about missing anything, besides, we need to get moving, and fast."

The two grass-types nodded. Star walked from the trees and onto the path, the trio behind catching up to the Shinx.

Shinx sighed and sat down on the log, covering his face with his palms. He inhaled too much smoke from the campfire they had built, coughing a little. Pikachu mistook it for a sob and sat down eside him, placing his arm around his newly-found friend.

"Hey, don't worry, they'll be back soon. And I'm sure both Catstars will be comign with them."

"I didn't cry!" Shinx yelled defensively.

"I didn't say you did."

Shinx couldn't take it anymore and broke down into tears. Pikachu's grip around his shoulder tightened. "Sssh. It's okay. Don't cry. I'm sure everything will be okay. Hey, I'm sure they're on their way now!"

Shinx sobbed. "I'm sorry. I should be braver. It's just... Well, you took the same trip as me. We both sacrificed everything to be here. What if Catstar, well, what if she isn't here? I know your Catstar will be but... The Catstar I know dissappeared. What if She-" he couldn't finish his sentence.

Pikachu smiled warmly. "Don't worry, if she's anything like the Catstar I know, she's a fighter. She won't back down from anything, not even a petty argument that there's no point even carrying on. She's too determined. We were once on the run, you know. She was the driving force that kept me going. I'm nothing without her. If she hadn't been there I'd be dead by now."

"Tell me the story."

Pikachu smiled. "Okay, here goes..."

He paced a little. He was worried. The henchmen he had sent after the Sableye hadn't returned yet and he was worried that they had been overpowered and killed. He had underestimated them.

He was also concerened about those two.

They knew everything. He had to find a way for them to... Forget everything they'd found out. But She'd told them. She'd given them the knowledge and the knowledge on how to maintain that knowledge. It was a fail-safe system that he'd struggle to infiltrate even with Arceus under his control. Maybe his best bet was-

Just to destroy them. Yes, that's what he would do. He'd send his best to get them eliminated; he'd learned his lesson with the sableye incident.

"Arceus," he called, "I have something for you to do."

Shinx finally smiled. "So... Catstar really helped you, then."

Pikachu smiled back, standing up. "Yup. Hey, listen, I can hear someone coming. They're here!" Both pokémon stood up excitedly, expecting to welcome their friends.

How terribly wrong they were.


	7. Chapter 7

Pikachu and Shinx gasped when they realised what they had previously heard wasn't footsteps at all; they were hoping it was too much and hadn't heard the noise properly. It sounded like buzzing, but after a while, the noise began to increase in volume and they finally realised it was the sound of wings...

Bat wings.

The gasp turned to shocked squeals of terror when hundreds of Zubat flew at the two, Biting and not seemign to use any other move. After the shock of it was over, the two grinned to each other. Yes, She's told them they'd be chased and that they should be worried. It was only Zubats, nothing to worry about. They looked at each other with looks showing both determination and also reading _Let's finish these losers!_

Both electric-type pokemon concentrated before both launching powerful Discharge attacks at all the Zubats close enough to attack. The powerful outburst of elctricity created a large cloud of smoke, making both pokemon cough a little. When the smoke cleared, Pikachu, cheeks sparking, looked over at his new friend. Shinx, tail letting out small jolts of static electricity, nodded to Pikachu to signal he was okay. They both looked around.  
Almost all the Zubats were out cold. Pikachu walked up to one of the only ones still consious, struggling on the floor, and picked it up by the wing. It winced slightly. "Now," Pikachu said, a menacing tone to his voice, "you're going to tell me who sent you." The Zubat spoke up. Pikachu could ell from its voice that it was male.

"And-And why should I tell you anything? I ain't gunna betray my master, ya hear me?!" Pikachu grinned, a demonic look in his eyes. "Oh, really? Your lovely, kind master who-" his cheeks began to spark more wildly, "Who left you at the mercy of two electric-type pokemon, despite your weaknesses?"

The Zubat grinned. "I aint gunna tell you nothin'. Besides, you ain't got much longer to live anyway. You think we're his most powerful sooldiers in this war? Nah, ya got more to worry aout than us."

"Tell me what you're talking about." Growled Pikachu. "An' why should I do that?" Pikachu began crushing the Zubat's wing as a little extra 'persuasion'. "Ow, ow! Okay! Since you asked so _nicely, _i guess I can tell ya one thing. We were just a simple diversion to get you started. Look. Behind. Ya." Without another word, the Zubat passed out in Pikachu's paw. He relaxed his grip on the Zubat's wing, dropping the bat pokemon carelessly to the ground.

"Well, that was wierd. Shinx, we'd best ignore him, we have nothing to wor- Shinx?" The Shinx was looking at something in the bushes, paralised with fear. He shakily lifted a paw. "Pi-Pikachu..." he said in a whisper, "There's another pokemon coming. And it brought friends."

* * *

Suddenly, Ebony stopped in her tracks. "What is it?" Eve asked, slightly worried. "Well, it feels like we're being watched... Do you not get that feeling, Eve?" Ebony began to walk away from the path, towards the trees and bushes nearby. Eve shook her head angrilly. Ebony! What do you think you're trying to pull?! I'm not stupid, don't expect me to fall for that trick aga-" Eve's rant was cut short by her double pulling on the arm of a pokemon that must've been hiding nearby. "That's the Grovyle that I shooed away a few days ago!" gasped Eve. "I wonder where his friend is..." Ebony just pulled Grovyle onto the path before speaking up.

"Yes, you're hiding well, but I know you're there... Look, Eve here says Grovyle had a friend with him. So, that's you, _isn't it, _Celebi?"

There was a gasp from the bushes, then a distressed groan. "Cell..." she grumbled. Ebony cursed under her breath, forgetting they were still human, hardly knew any pokéspeak and her old friends knew none of their language. Unless...

"Okay, Grovyle! You spent a good few years acompanying me in the pokémon world whilst I was still human, can you speak any of my language?" Grovyle nodded.

"I'll give it a go."

Ebony nodded. "Right. So, I'm guessing you can understand me clearly enough, but I also guess you struggle with pronunciation." Grovyle nodded. "So, get too stuck and just tell Sparx. He'll translate for you. Right, Sparx?"

"Right!" both the Pikachu and Shinx said in unison. Ebony put her head in her palms.

"Urgh... both of you then. I forgot about your nicknames... Hey, Star! We getting close to that clearing yet?"

"Well yes, surprisingly," Star said, "Just a couple of minutes, look, there it is in the distance-"

Star's sentence was cut short. Pika's jaw dropped at the sight of the silhoettes of the seemingly-hundreds of pokemon in the distance, heading for the break in the trees. "Oh Arceus," Eve said, "if that's the clearing, we have a lot of trouble on out hands..."

Shinx launched another Spark attack at the closest Golbat. There were too many, despite both his and Piakchu's type-advantages. "Pikachu! We have to take them down!" he cried.

"You _don't say!"_ retorted Pikachu sarcastically, launching a Thunder Wave at the two Golbats using Areal Ace directly aimed at him. The two big-mouthed bats were left suspended in midair for a few seconds, before ploping to the ground, still consious but completely paralised.

"BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAHHHHHHHHHH!" they heard as a large group of Pawniard charged them from the trees nearby, yelling out battle cries as they ran.

"Well, no type advantage for us, but at least they don't have one, either!" Shinx yelled over the yells of their attackers. However, Shinx's eyes kept darting to the bushes as he saw a green-eyed something stare at them. It was alone and it was definately not a Pawniard or a Golbat...

"It's them! Thank goodness they're safe!" cried a distraught Pika. "We have to help them!"

The four pokemon and two humans raced into the clearing to be met by a shocking sight.  
There were hundreds of Zubats littering the ground. Most looked unconsious and a few were awake, but struggling to move. A few of the weaker-looking ones even looked to be dead, killed by an attack too strong for their frail bodies to withstand or by being crushed by the dozens of pawniard trampling through everything to get-"

"_SHINX!"_

_"PIKACHU!"_

Both humans crashed through the trees and into the clearing, dodging as many Zubats on the ground as they could and hearing a sickening crunch of snaping bone ever time they failed to dodge one. It was also a problem that there were Golbat trying to take down their ex-partners too, using moves such as Confusion and Bite and some even using Extrasensory to try and move small objects in front of the two pokemon to try and trip them up. Suddenly, Ebony felt something warm and wet running down her arm. She looked and saw a large gash where a Pawniard's blade had cut her.

"That's gonna need some bandaging." Eve said loudly, concerned.

"Now's not the time for your medical opinion, Eve!" Yelled Ebony, trying to be heard over the cries of the pokémon around her, the snapping of bone and the noise from the massive number of attacks being used. Finally, they reached their old companions.

"Shiiiiiiiiiiiiinx!"

Ebony spun around to see Shinx get hit by an attack from a Pawniard. She'd never seen an Unova pokémon before until now, so she had no idea what move it had just used, if any. It had either just used a move that had never been taught to pokémon anywhere she's ever been or it had cheated the whole idea of using moves and had just decided to slash Shinx with a blade. Shinx was pushed back several steps from the attack and was pushed to the ground with a terrible cut on his side. He collapsed to the ground.

_"SHINX! NOOOOOOOO!" _Ebony forgot everything except her rage at the attackers for a brief moment. Everything. The Imperium Crystals, her return to the human world, dissapperaing. Everything that wasn't anger at these _monsters_ for hurting one of her closest friends. She leapt in front of the clueless and slighty terrified Pawniard, catching him off guard.

"_You'll PAY for that!" _she hissed in a strange tone. She focused all her strengh and energy and forced her palm right into the pokémon's gut. The Pawniard's eyes widened before he crashed limply to the ground, out cold. She turned away from the unconsious Pawniard and faced the many more pokémon attacking Pikachu and ran at them faster than she had ever remembered running before as a human. She slammed into the closest pokémon to her, a golbat, who was sent flying into the air, before slamming into the ground with a large 'thump'. She carried on charging ahead, slamming into foe by foe until she spun around and the sight before her eyes set her rage burning even more. There was a shiny Pawniard knelt down near Shinx, about to cut the limp pokémon's throat with one of it's blades.

_"OH NO YOU DON'T!"_ she shrieked, coming at the creature as fast as she could. However, just before she landed the hit, she felt herself being pushed back by some kind of force. Angrilly, she looked up to see a glowing barrier in front of her.

"(Protect...)" she grumbled to herself, recognising the move. The Pawniard took its chance to strike at her, using a powerful Fury Cutter move. She simply dodged it as much as she could, analising how it attempted the swipes, trying to learn it's tecnique. She was too absorbed in watching that she didn't notice until it wads too let that she hadn't managed to dodge its last swipe, sending her back a few steps and causing her to grip her arm slightly where the cut was now bleeding again, made slightly deeper by the last attack. She then focused to the task at hand. It was now or never. She unleashed a bombardment of attacks, clawing it with her nails. She was relieved that she had never bitten her nails now more than ever. When she finished unleashing he anger at the now severely injured Pawniard swayed a little, before falling ace-down on the ground. Ebony leaned over Shinx, checking his pulse. She breathed a sigh of relief at the fact he was still alive. She picked him up in her arms walked to a a safe distance; she wasn't sure if there were any more pokémon she hadn't noticed going to attack her. She went to wander up to Pikachu, but she couldn't see him anywhere nearby. That's when she realised just how quiet everything was.

She looked around her. Not a single one of their attackers was still moving. They had all been knocked out, or worse. As she spun around, she finally saw Pikachu, stood with Eve, Star, Pika, Grovyle and Celebi, just at the edge of the clearing, near the path. Everyone was staring at her, mouths agape. Then she realized what she'd done.

"Oh my Arceus," she whispered loudly, "What did I just do?!"

"Grovyle raised his eyebrows. He opened his mouth to speak, before changing his miond and telling Pika something in Pokéspeak. Pika nodded and translated for him. "He says '_I think you just used pokémon moves... As a human._'"

Everyone was silent. Finally, Eve broke the tension.

"Okay... Now, come on, Pika! Let's take these guys to Flower Paradise!"

Everyone nodded, grumbing in agreement before following the human and pokémon who knew where to go. Little did they know that the green-eyed something Shinx had seen earlier was silently watching them from the trees...


	8. Chapter 8

The group were getting close to Flower Paradise now, as Eve told them. They realised it was getting late, so decided to set up camp for the night. Celebi flew over to Grovyle before settling to the ground; she was exhausted.

"You okay, Grovyle? You've been seeming... Distant, lately."

He sighed and nodded. "Yeah, Cel. It's just... Well... The day didn't quite turn out as I'd hoped."

Celebi nodded knowledgeably. "Yeah... I mean, they did get attacked, right? Shinx and Pikachu? And, who would send Pawniard, Zubats and Golbats? Then again, perhaps they were being strategic. You never know, there could be a worse foe following us right now..."  
Grovyle didn't look at her. "Believe me, I think I know excactly who's behind all of this... And stratergy... Maybe so. They're strong, and good at hiding. Even in plain sight."

Celebi cocked he head to the side. "So... Who's behind it all?"

"Stop asking questions!" Grovyle suddenly yelled aggressively, "I don't wanna talk about it!"

Celebi looked rather taken aback. "G-grovyle..."

Tears formed in his eyes. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled. Can-can I have some fresh air, please? I promise I'll be back, just maybe not for a while. Don't worry, I'll be close by. I just wanna be alone for a while."

Celebi nodded, realising he was emotionally effected by all of this. She didn't ask any further questions.

Grovyle thanked her, before wandering into the trees further ahead.

He cursed out loud, infuriated about the information his surviving henchmen had given him; that the Shinx and the Pikachu had survived. He had hoped he could get rid of them with minimal fuss, but _they_ had stopped that from happening. He could only hope that Arceus was still intact and would be enough to take them down. Then, a plan came to mind.

"Arceus!" he called out. The huge beast would hear the call, he knew, but it would take him a while to get to him, from where the legendary had been hiding, near the temporary camp that the six pokemon and two humans had been occupying. It took him about ten minutes, but he finally arrived. He was glad Arceus knew Extreme Speed; it was so much easier...

"Have the Shinx and Pikachu spoke of the information that _She_ gave them yet?" The great beast shook his head.

"Maybe we can allow them to live then, for now. Hm... Yes, that is best. Where are they headed now?"

A low rumbling voice emanated from the Alpha pokémon, but it wasn't his regular voice. An effect of the imperium crystals, no less.  
"Flower... Paradise."

He nodded. "Good. Why are they going there?"

Again, Arceus replied in that dull, deep emotionless drone. "Fly. Fly to... Mount Coronet. Her. Going to... Her."

He cried out in anger, launching a Leaf Storm at the closest tree, his rage fuelling the attack and causing the tree to groan under the pressure as it split apart.

"If they get to the pokémon world, they can get the rest of the crystals. However, if those two interfere... She told them everything; if they tell them, there's no way they'll ever gather the crystals. We should pay the pokémon world a trip too, I think. I've missed being home. But first, I think it's time you paid a visit to their dreams again, Arceus."

"Yes... Master."

And with that conversation ended, Arceus ran with the wind, becoming a small dot in the distance.

Suddenly, he heard someone walking through the forest, getting closer to him.

"Hello...?" he could faintly hear the voice call out. "I've been looking for you for ages! Where are you?!" He recognised the voice and cursed. He had been there too long. He quickly used Dig, hiding under the ground as she walked past.

Celebi sadly headed back to the camp, her search unsucessful. At least she'd finally sorted out the other business she'd needed to settle. "Oh... I can't find him... he must have gone back, or he went the other way. Please be safe, Grovyle..."

Ebony woke up in the morning to see Eve talking to Celebi. She looked worried. Ebony walked over to them, concerned.

"Hey, girls!" she yawned sleepily. "What's wrong?"

"Grovyle hasn't come back yet, he said yesterday that he wanted some fresh air," Eve explained. "Also, we've had an idea. All this business with our names is just getting confusing, even more so with the fact that there's now eight of us... Or would that make there two of _us_, two of _them_ and one of the others- oh well, scrap all that. So, yeah. There's more of us and old habits die hard. They're going to end up calling one of us 'Catstar' and then we're going to be confused. Same for Sparx and Sparx. So, we decided we should use our nicknames as our names whilst we're in the same universe, y'know, call me Eve Catstar, you Ebony Catstar, him Star Sparx, _him_ Pika Sparx... That okay?"

Ebony nodded. "Genius. Hey, Celebi, don't worry! I see Grovyle coming now!"

Grovyle wandered into the clearing, looking exhausted. "Yeah, Sorry for being out for so long. I heard you, Cel, but by the time I got to you, you were gone. Then, I kinda got... held back, there was something I needed to deal with."

Everyone smiled at Grovyle, before sharing a meal of apples and berries. Then, they headed out to Flower Paradise once more.

Numar woke up and looked around. Her head was pounding after that fight with those Misdreavus, which she guessed she'd fainted in. She had no chance, really, but she knew those two would never have left her if they knew. She noted the room she was in was simple, yet comforting and she was in a straw bed. There was a wooden door at the far end of the room, which soon opened. A Mismagius walked in and began held out a sitrus berry to the Zorua.

"Here. Eat this."

Numar looked suspiciously at the food. "Hey, just a few hours ago, your friends attacked me! Why should I trust you?!"

The Mismagius looked at her solemnly. "It has been a week, actually. I have been feeding you berries whilst you have been unconsious to keep you strong.

My name is Deathica, of the Creek Clan. I am their leader. I sent them to attack because you are in terrible danger."

"Okay, I am in danger, so you _attack_ me?! How is that going to help?!" Numar demanded.

"You were in danger of aiding the enemy. He is the enemy of both of us. Here, let me explain..."

"Here we are!" announced Eve. The eight of them had travelled for most the day, but had finally gotten to Flower Paradise. Lucky they could all swim fairly well.

There was a large path set out, just a long patch of grass forming an island out to sea. It was covered in flowers, all neatly arranged in different colours.  
After half an hour, it was beginning to turn dark and Ebony was growing inpatient.

"Urgh... Man, why such a long road?! Can't the Shaymin just come up with something easier?!"

Eve shushed her. "Hey, look, I can see the end of the path! See? Now let's go!"

The group hurried on towards the Shaymin, eager to get a lift to Mount Coronet.

**Author's note- Numar belongs to NumarDarkwhisper of deviantART and Deathica belongs to Deathica-Creek of DeviantART.**


	9. Chapter 9

A small white hedgehog-like creature with green grass-like fur and a pink flower in her hair was stood in front of the eight of them, waiting for the large group to meet her. She smiled before speaking.

"Hello! Are you here with your trainer for a battle against me? I can sure as reverse world beat you! I may look sweet and innocent, but I sure can fight!" her voice suddenly lost confidence. "I think..."

Ebony smiled. "No. we aren't here for a battle and we aren't here to capture you. We're here because my friend here-" she gestured towards Eve, "-thinks you can help us. Can you fly us to Mount Coronet?"

The Shaymin suddenly looked confused. "Hey, you can understand me? How odd! Ah, well... Huh. Sure, why not? I can't carry all eight of you by myself, though. Hey, Lily! Over here!" Another shaymin soon lifted her head from the ground. Because of the grass-like fur covering her back, we hadn't noticed a second Shaymin, as she emerged from the grasses nearby.

"Ah, hello! So, how can you understand us, human?"

Ebony frowned. "I really don't know. I'm guessing you're not speaking my language?" Both Shaymin shook their heads. "Well, my friend Star here said he could speak some of my language, taught by a pokémon who managed to grasp it, Shinx, also here. So... No idea about this."

"Hmm... Well, your time as a pokémon may have given you a closer bond to pokémon, enabling you to hear their language for what it really is?" suggested Pika. He then turned to the Shaymin. "And _how_are you going to carry four of us on each of your backs?"

The Shaymin looked at each other. "We don't know..." they said, almost at the exact same time.

"I can show you how we fly, now!" said the first Shamin cheerfully. She walked over to one of the many pink flowers nearby and touched it with a paw. She began to glow softly, being taken into a white light. It was soon hard to distinguish her shape in the light and most the group shielded their eyes from the sight. The other Shaymin, Lily, also touched a flower. She began to glow, too.

Finally, the first Shaymin began to glow slighly less, but as she came back into view, she looked nothing like the grassy-hedgehog that had been there moments before. She looked much more confident, a wide grin on her face. Two red petals from one of the nearby flowers were on her neck, looking like a scarf that exploration teams wore, as Ebony remembered from her time on one. She had a long white body, four long legs and looked like she could do anything she wanted without a care about anything apart from having a laugh about it. She turned to the other Shaymin, Lily, who was coming back into view, also transformed. "Okay, now we should go. We can carry the two humans, you do have pokéballs in your bags, right?" The group all looked at each other, allarmed.

"We're free pokémon! We aren't owned by anyone!" Grovyle exclaimed, to nods from Celebi, Pikachu and Shinx.

"We are, but we don't like the Pokéballs..." protested Pika, to nodding from Star. The Shaymin sighed. "Uh... Okay. Well, we need another way then- OUCH!" The Shaymin rubbed the back of her head, annoyed and turned to see four murkrow, looking like they were struggling not to laugh, but also looking quite awkward.

"I'm sorry, miss," one said, "Me and my friends are trying to learn how to fly, see, and we... crashed, I guess."

"It's okay," Shaymin giggled cheerfully, "You kids be careful, though. Me and Lily can teach you how to fly if you want?"

One of the Murkrow nodded. "Yay, thanks!" she cried. Lily gasped.

"Ooh, Grace, I have an idea!" the other Shaymin, seemingly called Grace, looked at her.

"Go on, then! Tell everyone!"

"Well," Lily began with a giggle, "How about you help us fly these guys to the top of Mount Coronet? We can kill three birds with one stone- Oh, wait, sorry."

"It's okay," one of the Murkrow replied.

Lily looked relieved. "Thanks. Anyway, we can get three things done at once; it counts as your flying training, it gives us a chance for a race and a bit of fun, as well as giving these eight the transport they need!"

"Brilliant," said Pika in a low tone, "Only one problem. _These crazy little tykes just crashed into us! You honestly think they can get us to the mountain without killing us?!_

Grace laughed confidently. "Heehee! It's part of their training! Don't you see, they'll do amazing because they have to focus on keeping you guys alive!"

"I bet they care more about the race aspect." Pika muttered under his breath. Eventually, everyone agreed on the idea and Ebony and Shinx went with Grace, Eve and Pikachu with Lily and Pika, Star, Grovyle and Celebi each went with a Murkrow.

"Are you ready?" asked Grace. The other eleven pokémon and two humans nodded. "Off we go then!"

Grace took to the sky, closely followed by Lily, the four Murkrow bringing up the rear. Ebony stared in amazement as she saw how close they were to the clouds; she reached her hand up to run her fingers through it, only to be disappointed when she realised they were actually a lot further from the clouds than she had thought.

"Just because we're in the sky dosn't mean we can touch the clouds, Ca-uh... I mean Ebony!" Shinx laughed. Ebony laughed with him. She then turned to see Lily glide past them, Eve waving and Pikachu grinning, blowing a raspberry at them. Ebony tapped Grace on the shoulder and she slowed down briefly, turning her head.

"Hey, Grace! Speed up! We'll be okay, don't let Lily's team win!" Grace laughed.

"If you say so... Hang on!" Grace tore off into the sky, at a speed Ebony swore seemed almost as fast as a Latios, shooting past Lily, Eve and Pikachu.

"Hey!" Lily cried in a jokingly-annoyed voice. Ebony, Pikachu and Grace all laughed, but stopped when Lily caught up with also shocking speed.

"So, I guess We're gunna beat you by a few seconds less than we'd hoped." Ebony joked.

"Yeah, maybe not at all!" Eve called back. The six of us laughed, only for out moment to be cut short by the female Murkrow overtaking both teams, both her and Celebi laughing.

"Why you...!" shouted Shinx, pretending to be angry. Celebi gave a mocking wave and the Murkrow turned her head around to face them for a second and blew a raspberry. She then winked and sped off again. However, she sped up again a little too late as the Shaymin teams were both already back in the lead.

"We have this one _in the bag!_" Shinx chuckled as he saw the three male Murkrow arguing and knocking into each other in the distance behind them. He could see Grovyle facepalm and Pika and Star were urging their Murkrow to go onwards unsuccessfully.

"Not quite!" yelled Ebony, seeing Lily's team overtake them again. They could see the huge mountain looming up ahead, now.

"Hurry up!" yelled Shinx to Grace, struggling to make himself heard over the noise coming from the air due to their speed.

"This is faster than I've ever flown before!" Grace yelled back, "I don't want to risk a fall!"

"Well, just try!" Ebony yelled, seeing Eve pointing out the mountain delightedly to Lily. Finally, Grace managed a small burst of speed that was enough to overtake the others. Just before they reached the edge of the mountain, however, Grace wrinkled her nose, lagging behind a ;little. The smell soon wafted over to Ebony, who pulled her shirt over her nose slghtly and kept her head down, her shirt filtering the air to something that didn't stink as much. She turned to where the smell was coming from and saw Shinx.

"Urgh! Shinx, was that _you?!_" From the embarrassed look on his face, she guessed he had just passed wind. The three laughed, only for their joy to turn to horror when they realised that Lily's team had just landed safely, but with a jolt, on the flat surface of the top of Mount Coronet. Ebony could see some steps carved into the rock at the top, seemingly for if you took the route through the cave. _'I bet it isn't a dungeon, though!'_she thought jokingly.

Grace landed beside Lily and Ebony and Shinx stepped down onto the mountain. Ebony shook hands with Eve and Shinx and Pikachu shook paws.

"We'll win next time!" Ebony said with a wink. They all grinned and watched as the female Murkrow landed gently down, Celebi riding into the air slightly and gliding down.

"It's fun flying, but I wanted to see how amazing you are getting!" Celebi explained cheerfully to the Murkrow's questioning look.

"Well, I guess I'll wait for the guys, then I'm off. Thanks, Lily and Grace! I loved this game, it was so fun! I think I'm getting the used to flying and Celebi only fell once! Can we play this again sometime, but without the passengers?" Grace and Lily exchanged looks. "Eh... Maybe!" Lily said with a giggle. Everyone all joined in laughing before sitting down to watch the others come.

The other three Murkrow came slowly, agruing and bumping into each other. Grovyle had his head in his hands and Star and Pika also looked like they'd finally stopped trying to get them to focus on the race.

"Guys... Useless..." muttered the female Murkrow under her breath. We all laughed and watched as one of the Murkrow, the one carrying Star, seemed to finally realise it was a race and sped up, crash landing at the peak. His beak trailed through the dirt and he looked dizzy. Everyone laughed, even Star chuckled a little.

"Well, time to go, guys!" the female Murkrow said cheerfully. She looked at the others. "We need to go now, our parents are gunna be worried. Hey, Lily and Grace! We'll stop by your island again sometime then? I wanna race again!" Grace smiled. "Sure. Now, don't worry your parents! Cya!" Everyone waved as the four bird pokemon flew off into the sky.

* * *

The group were reduced to eight once more as they walked along the flat peak of Mount Coronet. They had bid farewell to the two Shaymin, who had taken off into the sky and were now stopping as they saw something on the ground.

"Hey, we're stood on some sort of tile, I think. What could it mean?" Star asked curiously.

"Oh, I know this one!" Eve cried enthusiastically, "Before I came to Pikachu's world I lived in Sinnoh, so I've heard legends about this! This tile shows a flute, so this must be the place where the Azure Flute must be played. It's a rare item that, once played in the exact right place, will summon a glowing staircase that leads to the Hall Of Origin; the domain of Arceus Himself."

Ebony let out a low whistle. "Wow. Anyway, looks like we can't get Arceus' help; we don't _have_that flute... thingy. So... We could ask Palkia? Maybe? Or how about Dialga?"

Grovyle shook his head. "That isn't going to work. Palkia controls space. Dialga can only control time. If we didn't need that ridiculous flute, we could've gone to Arceus, since he supposedly created the world. I don't know who could possibly help us now..."

"Giratina..." Shinx whispered, partly sounding terrified, yet desperate. Everone spun around to face him.

"What?! Shinx, Giratina was locked away in Distortion world! Sure, Giratina controls the Dimensions and gateways to other worlds but... No-one just goes and asks it for help!"

"We did..." Pikachu said in an equally fearful tone as Shinx.

"WHAT?!" everyone cried out in shock.

* * *

Shinx was concerned about what they had been told, though. They had to warn their friends about how dangerous Arceus was at this point. _'Yes,'_ he thought, _'I have to warn them!'_

"But we were told something. Something _very important_. You guys are relying on one pokémon and hoping they're gunna save you all. Well, no. They're being controlled! This is all a trick! I can tell you all that you shouldn't trust-" Just before he had the chance to finish his sentence, he heard a high-pitched humming in his ears. He paused for a second, hoping it would pass. He hoped it was just a little annoying noise like anyone gets in their ears now and then. But it wasn't. It's pitch grew and it got louder, beginning to fill his ears and make his head feel like it was going to explode. He had been warned about the only way he could be forced to forget the knowledge, and he recognised it from the description, now more than ever. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. He noticed everyone else except Pikachu looking at him in surprise, looking higher up than usual. Then he realised he was lying on the ground. He didn't remember lying down, so he summarised he must have fallen to the ground, as well as Pikachu. He summarised they had just shared the same experience.

"So... Who is it we shouldn't trust? Oh, and are you okay, Shinx?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. There was some wierd buzzing in my ear. Arceus, that was painful! And... Oh, my! I can't remember what I was going to say!" Celebi rolled her eyes. "Riiiiiiight... Anyway, are we going now? Where can we find Giratina?"

"Oh! Yeah, forgot about that for a second! Follow me!"

They all followed at a quick pace to follow Shinx, with Pikachu leading as well, since he also knew where to go. They finally reached an area with many stone pillars and a gray stone floor.

"Kinda reminds me of the top of Temporal Tower," Ebony smiled, looking at Shinx. He smiled faintly.

"Yeah..." His smile faded. "There's only one thing I think of though, now, when I imagaine that tower..." His eyes filled with tears and Ebony bent down and put her arm around him.

"It's okay. I'm here, now. I may look different, but It's me. Besides, that _is_the place where we saved the world!" He calmed relaxed a little. "You're right... Now, let's go find Giratina."

* * *

If Ebony expected a long and dramatic search, she was wrong. Shinx and Pikachu soon stopped and stood overlooking some steps going down slightly. There was nothing there, just a platform.

"Hmm... Well, I met Giratina in the middle of the night, I think. When did you see Giratina, Shinx?" asked Pikachu

"About the same time." Ebony nodded. "Okay. So, we'll just wait here until midnight. For now, let's sit and relax."

* * *

Everyone sat around in the circle, like sitting around a campfire, but with no fire, since they had nothing to make a fire with. Ebony had told her story of her human life, helped out by Star. Then, Eve and Pika had told their story. Eve had then gone on to tell of her's and Pikachu's adventures in the pokémon world; how they had met in Tiny Woods and saved a Caterpie who was trapped by a Fissure that had opened up at the end of the dungeon, how they had created a rescue team base, how they had become best friends. She explained about how everyone thought she was the human from the legend of the Ninetales curse, and how Gengar, leader of Team Meanies, had seemed intent on the whole town believing it was true. How they were on the run for a short time and how they had eventaully returned, and, a few days ago, had gone to Sky Tower and saved the world.

Then, Eve had left for the Human World unvoluntarily.

Everyone was sympathetic of them both and took some time to comfort Pikachu, still suffering from the bad memories, when Ebony began her tale, aided in the telling of it by Shinx. She told of how they had met on the beach, retrieved Shinx's Relic Fragment from the two sidekicks of Team Skull and had become best friends. Of how they had signed up at the Wigglytuff Guild and become a successful exploration team. Of how they had helped capture Grovyle, which at this point, Grovyle helped add his side of the story to this and began to aid the pair in telling the others. The three told the group how they had been dragged to the future by Dusknoir and then upon returning, with Celebi's help, had warned the guild of the fact that Dusknoir was bad ad Grovyle was good. At first, noone believed them, but then reality sunk in. Everyone helped out, Grovyle stole all the Time gears again, they went to the Hidden land-

"-And anyway, We had to go through this reeeeeeeally hard dungeon pretty much as soon as we got there, and we got to like this wierd chamber with pictures of legendary pokémon on the walls. We got to these stairs and figured out that the Relic Fragment had to be inserted into the Rainbow Stoneship to activate it. Then, Dusknoir came."

"Aww, _AGAIN?!"_Pika exclaimed, really interested in the story. Ebony nodded.

"Yeah, he attacked us and tried to send us back to the present, Shinx's future, again. We managed to knock him out, or we thought we had anyway, until he managed to get up again. He started launching a Shadow Ball from his stomach, so we forced our combined moves down his stomach, knocking him out properly this time. Grovyle told Shinx to check the Rainbow Stoneship worked, and then Dusknoir told me all the pokémon from the future... That we would all dissappear because we would be from a future that no longer existed. I diodn't have the heart to tell Shinx, but by the time he got back, Dusknoir managed to sum up enough energy to get up again and fight. Grovyle... Well, I'll let him tell this next part. I couldn't possibly... Too sad..."

"Well," Grovyle began, "I realised that we's have no chance if he kept fighting like this. I also realised I was going to dissappear as soon as the mission was complete, so what was the point in carrying on with it when I could do one last duty that would pratically ensure they would get there on time? So, I ran at Dusknoir and began pushing him into the Dimensional Hole. The other two were devastated, but it had to be dont. I threw Shinx thecloth pouch that was holding the Time Gears and told them both to carry on. I said-"

_"Though the parting hurts, the rest is in your hands..."_whispered Ebony, on the verge of tears. "I remember. Those exact words. He left us right then and there and I knew I probably wouldn't see him ever again, at least not in this life. Shinx didn't realise, but those words, parting hurts... Not me and Grovyle. Me and Shinx. I saw Grovyle... One last time... Then he was gone. I never thought I'd see him again. Of course, I have my memory now. All of it. Like a parting gift when I dissappeared... Only thing is, it hurts even more now, now that I remember all ther good times we had... I remember when I was in the pokémon world, a lost human, wondering where her mother and pokémon partner were. Then I met Treeko. That was grovyle when we were younger. We would talk for ages, laugh, meet our friend, Celebi. We had a friend called Spiritomb, too, but he was consumed by the darkness. Funny, when I returned to the future with Shinx, I never realised the pokémon I was fighting was once one of my best friends... Good times. But anyway, going off subject here. Grovyle went into that Dimensional Hole with Dusknoir, and that was it. I was devastated and so was Shinx. H epicked up Grovyle's bag and we headed off to the tower, just the two of us. Lacking one of my best friends, lucky to hae the other.

"We walked into the huge entrance to the tower and fought many pokémon, there were a lot of Dragonite and Lunatone, especially. It was tough and the weather constantly changed from one extreme to the other. One minute there was hail, then when we found the stairs to the next floor, it may have been sunshine. Then the next floor would be cloudy, then back to hail. It was... Strange. There was even sandstorms sometimes, somehow. We managed to beat the tower, but we got knocked out a few times. Finally, we reached the top, to be greeted by Dialga. He was almost Primal, shockingly. He growled, but unlike true Primal Dialga, he was still capable of speech. He yelled at us ands accused us for the fact that Temporal Tower was collapsing. He wouldn't listen to reason, so I realised we'd have to fight. We fought as best as we could, and I thought it was over when Shinx was knocked out. Luckily, I found a Reviver seed in the treasure bag just on time and the fight continued. We managed to beat him, but were injured badly. Finally, he collpased to the ground. We went and fixed the tower by insering the gears. Dialga was back to normal, now, and he told us we'd just saved time and that he was extremely grateful. We walked away from the tower, Shinx with a spring in his step, me... Devastated. Then, I saw yellow light before my vision. Shinx was shocked, but it was worse for me, having to explain. He actually thought I was lying! That I wasn't his friend anymore! I just want to say I'd never betray him. We were the best exploration team ever, the best combination... The best of friends. I remember telling him that I was his friend. That-"

"I remember. You said, _'Of course, Shinx. You'll always be my friend. Forever. Even when I don't exist, our friendship will be eternal. And remember, friends will come and friends will go, but keep them close to your heart and they never left your from the start... Take care. I... I... I l- Just... Take care. You have to live! Tell everyone about this; don't let history repeat itself. Tell everyone you know and everyone you don't. I'll miss you... For all eternity...'_" Shinx whispered. "You called me Sparx, that time. I remember. That was always your nickname for me. Now I know why..." he looked slightly teary.

"Wow... You remmebered it. Word for word." Ebony wiped tears from her eyes. "That day had so much meaning to me. You don't know how it felt, dissappearing. It didn't hurt, phisically, it hurt knowing I was leaving my best friend alone."

"How could I ever forget?" asked Shinx. "I told you, even if the laws of reality say I would forget you, I swore I wouldn't. I fulfilled your last wish after I got back... Everyone... I told the guild about what the Hidden Land, about Dialga, About Grovyle, and about Catstar... Well, Ebony. I also told them about restoring balance and peace to the world, of course. I would talk in Treasure Town to large groups of pokémon about our tale, but I never did any official explorations since you were gone. I travelled, though, because I wanted to do what you told me to do. I'd told everyone I knew... It was time to tell everyone I didn't. I travelled for several months, before returning to the guild for a bit. I took some fresh air before dinner, getting a walk. It was dusk and the Crabby were out, blowing bubbles. It made me remember when I met you again, Catstar... Uh, I mean Ebony. I remembered when we met, signing up at the guild... Saving Azurill, exploring Waterfall Cave, capturing Grovyle, being dragged to the future, fighting Spiritomb, metting Celebi, returning to the past... Helping in Treeshroud Forest, finding the Hidden Land, Grovyle's sacrifice... Everything. You were always there to keep me going. Then you were... Gone. And you weren't there... I passed out in tears. Luckily, Bidoof was there to comfort me. It wasn't enough. He took me back to the guild. It's been a year since then. I've lived travelling since, always on the move. Telling thw whole world. Then one day, I was in Spinda's café and I heard pokémon discussing sightings of Giratina. I met Giratina, alone, at midnight. I explained everything, and here I am. I was given knowledge, but I think... I think I just lost the knowledge in that headache. Someone doesn't want me to know. But anyway... I was told there was a price, but It wouldn't matter for a long time. I came to this world. Giratina told me you still lived, that I could find you here. So here I am."

"Wow," Ebony breathed, "A year... For me, it was mere moments. I dissappeared a week ago, or so I thought. I can't believe it's been a year or more..."

Shinx nodded. "The worst part was your birthday... I remember it well. I realised it was your birthday, one day. That you didn't exist, so there was no birthday... Then, I opened my window and... A few minutes later, a red balloon flew into the room through the window. That was the worst part; it was too painful to think about. Also... I never told you my name before. My name isn't just Shinx..."

"What is it?" Ebony asked curiously.

"It's... Enzo..." he said. "I knew you for a year, and I never told you my name. I feel like an idiot.. You know, it's been two years since I met you on the beach at dusk, yet I remember it as if it was yesterday."

"I'm sorry," a voice said unexpectedly. It wasn't one of them. "I hope I'm not disturbing anything? Did you want me for something? Or do you want Dialga or Palkia or something? They aren't currently in this world; I can get them if you want...?" The voice was polite and feminine. We all looked up.

"Giratina!" Enzo cried, relief in his voice, "Just who we wanted to see!"

"Ah, you two. I remember. So, you are wanting to go back...? Okay then, but remember, there is a price. You, there!" Ebony looked at her. "I'm sorry, you will be paying the price."

"No!" cried Enzo, leaping to her defense, "Don't hurt her!" Giratina looked at him sadly, her voice gentle. "I'm sorry; I don't make the rules. I'd change it if I could, but... I can't. Besides, it won't matter for a long time, anyway."

"Well, come here and I will teleport you to the pokémon world. I will helkp you in any way I can, for you only have to pay the price once, Catstar Hawthorn. And apparently, none of the rest of you will have to pay, either." She was looking at Ebony, so she assumed she was directing that comment at her, not Eve. She wondered how Giratina knew her surname, but she let it pass.

"Let's go, then. Giratina, send us off!" she said, determined.

"Okay... Good luck!"

There was a bright flash of light, then they were gone.

* * *

They were on the beach. The Riolu saw they were all unconsious, but she tuned in to her leader's commands. "Okay. What now?" she asked.

"You know what to do. Start with Phase Two of the plan. Infiltrate the dreams of the Shinx so he won't realise the difference. You have that Dream Demi extract, right?"

She nodded. "Yep. So, do I drink it...?"

"No," he said, "That would be ighly... dangerous. Inhale the toxins of it. That Chikorita was done for the moment we saw her. I still can't believe how many humans there are in this world, transformed into pokemon... There are more than are noticed. We will extract all of their abilities! You know what to do."

"Well, you're a devious Grovyle, aren't you? Also... Can I ask one more thing?" the Riolu asked. She was slightly uncomfortable. "You won't... extract my Dimensional Scream ability, will you?"

He chucked softly. "Why would I do that? You are a great aid in my plans, you have your reasons... You have a drive to carry on..."

"Jade," she seethed, gritting her teeth in anger. He smiled. "Exactly. Now, do what must be done..." The Riolu knelt down in the sand, breating in the Dream Demi fumes.

**Author's note: 'Jade' belongs to Jadewolf33 on deviantART.**


	10. Chapter 10

Enzo looked around. He was in a black world. He took a step forward, only to feel extreme agony, like fire burning him alive. He began to fall slowly at first, then quicker. He'd never felt such excruciating pain before. Then, it just suddenly stopped.

"Hello?" he asked curiously, yet fearfully at the same time.

"Hello, _Enzo_..." a voice said. It was feminine and seemed familar to him, yet like a complete stranger at the same time.

"Who- who are you?!" he demanded.

"Well... You'll see for yourself."

He could see a light before him, white against such complete darkness. It began to take the form of a silhoette; a pokemon, about double his height. He smiled in relief when he saw the form it was starting to seem to take.

"Catstar!" he cried delightedly. "Or Ebony, whatever. There's none of the others around, so why use the nicknames. Kinda pointless. Anyway, where is everyone?"

No answer. He frowned as he realised this seemed to be just a regular Riolu; he couldn't see the outline of the mane of cream fur, like that of a lucario; just a small band of fur around her neck. It wasn't Catstar.

"Wait... You aren't Catstar! Who are you?!"

He heard a sigh. "I... am Catstar. Do... Do I look different? I don't look too bad, do I?"

Something didn't seem right to him, but he didn't voice his opinion. "No. But you look like a normal Riolu now, normal fur, normal coloured paws, spikes not growing on your paws... Normal. Oh, apart from the fact that the band of fur around your neck is red. Is it really you?" He looked to see her sigh sadly.

"Well... Wasn't there a price? For coming? Maybe that was it..." she looked almost tearful. Enzo ignored the pain he felt every step and walked over to her, to comfort his best friend.

"It's... It's okay. I'm sure everything will be okay..." She nodded. Seemingly the moment she nodded, his vision began to turn white, as he was moved from that world of pain and darkness. Maybe that's how much Catstar, Grovyle, Celebi and the unnamed pokémon out there in the future had suffered before they had saved the world...

He didn't wake up straight away, but drifted off into lighter, less painful dreams.

* * *

She gasped aloud as she sat bolt upright, dropping the bottle to the ground, seeing the liquid getting absorbed into the sand as it poured from the remains of the bottle. She could still see its essence drifting into the air. She stood up, grinning at the fact that the Shinx had fallen for it. Now noone would question her appearence.

She also knew he would remember nothing of the dream when he awoke.

The dream had served it's purpose; when he awoke his memories would be altered; her looking like the red banded Riolu smiling faintly on the beach, rather than the unusual-looking Riolu whose body she happened to be dragging away right now, to dump somewhere where she wouldn't be discovered.

Sadly though, she couldn't change how her voice sounded to everyone. She just hoped she would be able to pull it off anyway, that maybe Riolu sound pretty much the same as each other. But she knew that wasn't true. Ah well, she had already promised that she'd take care of this one, whilst he pretended to be the other. He was probably dragging away the corpse of the other one right now. She knew they were taking them to the same spot, somewhere no rescue nor exploration team ever seemed to ever bother to look.

She saw his silhoette further on in the cave, slumping the body against the wall, right near the other two, the constant _drip, drip_of the water in the cave reminding her of the steady dripping of blood. Sadly, in her opinion, there was no blood today. If things went her way, however, there would be soon enough. She had swore her revenge on that green Poochyena who had eluded her so much, and she would get it. "(Yes...)" she thought, "(I'll have my revenge all right... You will pay for what you've done, Jade... You ruined my life!)" She then walked out of the cave, after dumping the unmoving form of Catstar Hawthorn by the far wall of the Beach Cave.

* * *

Catstar finally managed to reach one more boulder in the cave.

"Geodude, Rock Smash."

She watched as the pokemon she had captured just a few minutes before crushed the rock blocking her path. She had stolen a HM Rock Smash from the bag of a rather stupid-seeming woman on Route 12, as she had her bag slightly open and hadn't noticed her sneak it away.

She had woken up just last week in the middle of a forest, to her surprise. She was supposed to dissappear; she had been told by two pokemon who would know already; Dialga and... _him._She'd never forget his face until the day she truly died; she had forgotten it before when she'd woke up on that beach, but now she had her memories back, his face would never leave her mind. What he had done had ruined multiple lives and crushed her spirit.

He had killed her closest friend.

She remembered it vividly; the day she, Grovyle and Celebi were about to go through the passage of time and he'd intercepted them. They'd tried to fight back; she hit him a few times, along with some moves from Celebi, but it wasn't enough. They'd finally knocked that _monster_to the ground, so Celebi activated the passage and gave it a timer; it would deactivate in thirty seconds. She the teleported away, telling them the fate of the world was in their hands. He launced a Leaf Storm attack at Grovyle, who dug underground to evade it. Grovyle used Leaf Blade against their enemy, getting pushed out of the way like it was nothing, however. Grovyle then knocked him to the ground, seemingly properly knocking him out this time, Catstar warning that they were low on time before the passage would be closed, possibly forever. Just before they walked through, shockingly, there had been a terrible thunking noise as a blade made contact with bone. That evil little... Well, he had just completely misused the Leaf Blade attack, slicing a deep wound into Grovyle. It was a severe puncture wound, blood spilling quickly. It was over in a few agaonising seconds. "G-go... Catstar... I'm too far gone... You have to carry on... Save the world... I'm so... So glad I got to know you. I'm so glad there's still hope left... Hope for a beautiful future. I know I'd never get to see it no matter what, so just promise me..." "No..." Catstar whispered. "No! I won't leave you!" All the time this had been playing out, their enemy had been watching, letting it happen, watching their suffering. "You must... Go on. Go now. Besides-" he smiled faintly, "You haven't seen the last of me, Castar Hawthorn." Not knowing what he meant, she shed a few tears over her friend as he suddenly became still. She gave a quick salute to her fallen friend before running to the Passage Of Time at breakneck speed. Relieved to be safe, she finally felt the parculiar sensation of cool and warm air at once as she stepped through the portal, headed off to another time period. Just when she had relaxed, thinking it would all be okay, she felt a Leaf Blade hit her from behind. She was pretty sure she'd have ended up like Grovyle if it wasn't for the fact that she was moving at the time. She grazed her back, streaking her spiked pink hair with red, not matching as much as the few purple streaks her hair already had.

Then, she had woken up on a beach, not long after. She could hear two pokémon talking, but couldn't make out the words. One ran away and she heard a thud as he dropped something. He didn't pick it up, so she guessed the other pokemon must have then decided to collect it. Then, he had seen her.

Treecko had come over to her and asked her if she was okay. She discovered she had turned into a Skitty, to her shock. Suddenly, she had noticed two pokemon hiding behind some rocks on the beach nearby. Those two pokemon were a Koffing and a Zubat, who then stole Treeko's rock, which he called a Relic Fragment. Both Catstar and Treecko had chased them through the Beach Cave, stopping at the water, ready to fight. They had gotten back the Relic Fragment that belonged to Treecko, but Catstar pressumed it was actually the possesion of the other pokemon who ahd been talking to Treecko, before.

But that was a story for another day. What was important as that Catstsar and Treecko, who were the fairly-famous exploration Team known as Team Skireecko by now, had just saved the world by inserting the Time Gears into five slots at the top of Temporal Tower. The pair were intercepted by Catstar's lifelong enemy, who then told Catstar whilst Treecko was checking the Rainbow Stoneship worked, that he had won anyway, since- She was cut from her train of thought when she realised she had gotten to the top of the mountain. She placed the pokeballs of the pokemon she had captured that week gently on the ground, all six of them, before pressing the release buttons and freeing them. They each ran off in opposite directions, a few seeming reluctant to leave her and some of the ones she had more recently captured seeming delighted. She continued to walk and checked the time on her new pokétch. It was just reaching midnight. She stared in wonder as a strange-looking portal opened in a dip of the Spear Pillar, and a huge pokémon emerged from it. "(Huh,") she thought, "(Looks like the rumours about Giratina were right.)"

Giratina began to walk to her and spoke in a surprisingly feminine voice, taking Catstar aback a little.

"Yes?" the huge pokémon asked politely. "Can I help you, Catstar Hawthorn?"

"How do you know my name?"

"I know a lot of things. Now, I guess you want to go back?" Catstar nodded. "Then there is a price." Giratina hesitated, before continuing. "Huh. Looks like another will pay. You are ready to go?"

There was something bothering her, though. "But who's gunna pay? I don't want someone else to suffer for me!"

Giratina gave her a solemn look. "They have already set themself on the path to paying the price. They have asked me to teleport them to the pokemon world themself. It looks like fate is on your side; you can also benefit from their choice." Catstar relaxed a little. "Okay, Catstar. You are now ready to go?" She nodded. "Good."

* * *

Enzo woke up. He smiled as he noticed they seemed to be in the usual place for waking up from another world or time period; the beach. Such a funny, yet wierd point; why always the beach? Ah well, one of the strange things in life.

"Hey, Ebony!" he called to the Riolu with the red band around her neck. She looked confused at first at the nickname, she must have forgotten about the other name at first. Then, realisation seemed to dawn on her.

"What?!" she called impatiently over to him. There was something about her voice- it did sound like her for the most part, but there was something... Slightly different. Maybe he'd just been getting used to her as a human.

"We're all okay!"

Eve looked over at everyone. She frowned when her eyes met Grovyle's.

"Huh? How do you have a scar over your eye? You didn't, before."

He looked a little alarmed at first, like he didn't expect anyone to notice. "Well... Uh, I must've got it whist we were travelling through that... _thingy_that took us to this world, maybe?"

"Oh... Okay." Enzo could tell Eve didn't believe a word of it, and neither did he. It would take a long time for a cut like that to heal and eventually become a scar. However, if it was Grovyle or not, they couldn't do anything about it.

"Uh... Imperium Crystals now?" asked Grovyle. He seemed inpatient.

"Well... Where could they be?" asked Ebony.

"Hmm... Well, I think the most obvious place to check first would be Crystal Cave," Enzo said.

"Crystal Cave?" Pika asked, "Wow, I have no idea about things in this world; I haven't lived here since I was a Pichu." Eve stared at him.

"Wait.. You've been here before? When?!" demanded Eve.

"Most pokemon don't actually lay eggs. Those eggs that you see in the human world aren't real," Star explained. Bot Pika and Star hadn't even seemed to be there before, they had been leaving the conversation to everyone else. "The eggs are actually teleportation capsules, mostly just used for teleportation to the human world. They can be used to travel to different time periods, across the world or whatever, but use of them in this way isn't normally authorised. That's why you don't see many pokemon travelling in time. Another setback is that the moment the capsule door closes, the pokemon is sealed in there. That is why they normally set the capsule to the coordinates of a daycare center; then they are found by trainers in best cases; then they walk around with the 'eggs', generating heat enough to overload the system, the capsule eventually breaking. Does that answer your question? I'll have you know, I, too, was once living here, but I don't really remember it very well; I came with my parents when I was a little Shinx; we were hoping the planet wasn't paralised in the human world. My mother never told me what happened to my dad for a long time, but not long before Ebony found me, she told me he was one of the pokemon who had tried to change time a while back. Primal Dialga hunted down everyone involved; I think I've met my father before, but a few days after I was born, he was killed. And no, I don't want any grief from any of you. What's done is done; you can't change things that have already happened. Well, not very easily and at the risk of dissappearing, I hear." He grinned at Enzo, who in turn grinned at Ebony. She looked lost, not realising the inside joke, but gave a clearly fake smile anyway.

* * *

Numar gasped. "What?! That is the _real_purpose of the crystals?! But how can it be?! Arceus himself came to me in a dream! He told me they were to stop the fabric of space from being destroyed!"

"I take it you've never learned any latin then." Deathica summarised calmly. "If you actually do your research, you'll find that _Imperium_ is actually Latin for _Control_."

"So..." Numar said slowly. She gasped again. "Oh my Arceus! Those girls and their friends will be in huge trouble! Come, we must stop them from aiding him!" Deathica nodded and the two of them sprinted from the room.

"Fantina, you're in charge whilst I'm gone," Deathica said to a Misdreavus who was starting to develop Mismagius features, clearly close to evolving. She nodded, leaving to inform the others in her clan.

* * *

They rushed past every obstacle they saw on their way to Spear Pillar. They leapt over rocks, vaulted over ditches and darted up stone steps. They could see the silhoette of a girl with spiked hair talking to a huge creature that could be none other than Giratina. As they ran, they saw a flash of white light before them, engulfing the human girl as they could see her becoming a lot smaller, into what looked like the form of a pokemon. However, before the light cleared, she had vanished. Numar skidded to a halt before Giratina and Deathica slowed to a stop, hovering.

"Ah. Deathica Creek, Mismagius, and Numar Darkwhisper, Zorua, correct?" the legendary said lightly, sounding rather bored. Numar noted how feminine Giratina's voice was.

"Yes," was all Deathica said.

"Okay. I'll send you now. Don't worry; I know where you want to go."

* * *

Catstar woke up. She was on the beach. So, she must've made it. She wondered if she was a Skitty again. She looked into the distance and could see a group of eight pokemon stood before her. One of them was-

"GROVYLE!" she cried delightedly, running towards him, "Oh, I've missed you so much I-" she stopped as he turned around, revealing a scar on his right eye. "YOU!" she snarled, realising who it was, "You little-" she stopped short, seeing the surprised Eevee looking at her. She seemed familiar, somehow.

"Uh... Why do you sound like me?!" demanded the Eevee. "And _why do you have the same hairstyle as me?!"_

Catstar gasped. She really did sound like her! And they both had the same spiked up fringe! "What's your name?" Catstar asked curiously.

"Well, long story. You can call me Eve, but my real name's Catstar. Catstar Hawthorn." she gestured to the Riolu stood in the group, who had a red band of fur around her neck instead of cream. "And her nickname is Ebony, but he name is also Catstar."

All Catstar could do was gape at them. "B-but... That can't be right!"

"I know... Strange. But you see, Ebony here is from a different dimension. She had just gone to a place called Temporal Tower and-"

"And stopped the planet's paralysis by placing the time gears into the five slots at the top of the tower and beating Dialga," Catstar finished. Eve stared at her.

"Uh... _how did you know that?!_"

"Because," she began, "My name is Catstar, too. But is we're going with nicknames, you can just call me Amy."

**Author's note- Numar belongs to NumarDarkwhisper, Deathica belongs to Deathica-Creeka and the red-banded Riolu and Jade belong to Jadewolf33. All on DeviantART.**


	11. Chapter 11

The Chikorita's eyes began to open slightly. She lifted her head from the cold stone wall, wondering where she was. After a quick scan of the cave she was on, she summarised that it was Beach Cave. Funny, that's how her adventures with Blaze had started; when his Relic Fragment treasure was stolen by Team Skull's goons. She also saw that Blaze was slumped against the cave wall, unconsious, just like she had been. She walked over to him.

"Blaze! Wake! Come on! Wake, Blaze!" The Torchic's eyes fluttered open.

"Are we okay?" he asked. She nodded.

"Yes. But Dream Demi failed when I tried to call it forth when I was asleep." she turned to see the all-too familiar shape of an old friend, also slumped against the wall. "Is that Grovyle? Haven't talked to him in ages! I thought he was still in the future!" she walked over to her friend, poking him in the ribs. "Grovyle! Wake!" When he did nothing, she quickly used a Leaf Blade attack, trimming his head leaf a little. His eyes snapped open.

"Gah! Who are you?! Where are we?!" he demanded. She frowned.

"Grovyle, it's me! You don't have amnesia, do you?" he shook his head.

"No, I have my memory, actually. I really don't know you."

She turned away, a single tear falling down her cheek. How could he not know her? He was her best friend and partner in their time. She didn't notice a third shape as another pokémon rose, not noticing her, either.

"Huh? Is that...?" She spun around, recognising the voice.

"Catstar! I haven't seen you in a long time. How have you be-" she stopped, noticing she was staring right at a strange-looking Riolu, not her Eevee friend. She turned away again, embarrassed at the mistake. "Sorry, really. I thought you were someone else."

"I did, too." The Riolu approached her, putting an arm around her shoulder.

"Or did I?"

"...Huh?"

"Well..." began the Riolu. "Are you Narry Nee-Chan?" Narry gasped.

"How do you know my name?!"

The Riolu smiled again. "It's me, Catstar. Let me explain..."

* * *

After a while of explaining, Ebony and Grovyle had filled in Narry and the other pokémon, the Torchic, who Ebony had since learned was called Blaze, entirely on the subject.

"So..." Narry said slowly, "You and Grovyle are from another dimension and have to collect these crystals to save space."

"Sounds cliché when you say it like that, but yeah."

"Should we help?" Blaze asked. "We're an exploration team, too! We stopped Primal Dialga!" Ebony frowned.

"Yeah... I gotta ask you about that later, Narry. So we'll get all the crystals in this dimension and then we go to mine. By the way, your Catstar knows me now, so we're going by nicknames to save confusion."

"Oh?" Narry asked curiously. "Tell me."

"I'm Ebony, she's Eve. You should have one, too."

Narry stared at a puddle of water thoughtfully for a while, watching small drops fall onto it, a ripple spreading across the surface. "Hmm... Can I be called Lira?"

Ebony grinned. "Love it! Okay, so you wanna come, then?" Both their new friends nodded. "Good. And no, Blaze, you don't need a nickname. In my dimension, I don't think Narry, uh, Lira, knows you. She was met on the beach by a Pikachu by the name of Cell."

"Cell?" Blaze said suddenly. Ebony nodded.

"Yeah, why?"

"I know a Pikachu called Cell here! He's on Team Sapphire; they're your team in this dimension!"

That was when it struck Ebony. She hadn't really thought of it much, but Pikachu had always seemed familiar to her. Of course; it was Cell! "Oh! That's why he always seemed so familiar!"

Grovyle took the break in the conversation as a chance to jump into it himself. "Okay, now introductions are outta the way, let's just think; who sent us here? Because we all know we normally wake up on the beach after travelling through time or space, so why are we in Beach Cave?"

"Well me and Blaze were just walking through Sinister Woods, near to where Team Sapphire's base was, since we were visiting them," Lira said, "They live off further to the north, in another region. I have no idea how we're here, but I think someone hit me round the back of the head with something."

"So... They'll probably be back to finish the job, since I guess they tried to kill us. If they just wanted us out they could've just dragged me and Ebony away, but I've noticed a few wounds and I'm pretty sure I din't get those whilst travelling. We need to get outta here, and fast."

They all nodded, preparing to get out of the cave.

* * *

Numar awoke to see Deathica looking rather annoyed at the large amounts of sand covering her... Dress? Well, since Deathica was, tecnically, just a dress with a mind, she didn't know if that would be suited to this scenario.

"Hey, we must go now. Numar, clean what you can from your fur, it is time to save the others!" Numar nodded and the two ran from the beach, in persuit of their friends.

* * *

Ebony and the other three were finally out of the cave, following the tracks on the beach. Noone could make sense of any of it until Blaze finally pointed something out.

"Footprints."

Ebony stared at him. "What?"

He shrugged. "Footprints. Look, there's a trail of Eevee footprints, two trails of Pikachu footprints, Shinx footprints, again, two pairs, a trail of Skitty prints... Then there's a couple of Celebi tracks, like they flew to the ground for a bit when they got tired. I guess these are all your friends...?"

"We don't know a Skitty," Grovyle interjected. Blaze shrugged, before continuing.

"However, there's also a pair of Grovyle tracks and those of a Riolu... Did either of you do any walking before ending up in that cave?" Both shook their heads. "Well, now we know someone's replaced now we know who we're looking for; a Skitty, a Grovyle and a Riolu. Also, there's some Zorua prints and it looks like someone else was here too, but didn't leave tracks, so I guess they can either fly or are a ghost type... But these tracks are fresher, so I don't think they were with your friends."

"Question," Ebony said suddenly to Blaze. The Torchic looked at her. "How do you know who each set of tracks belong to so well?"

"The both of us do many days of sentry duty," Lira said, grinning, "Blaze knows so many footprints!"

Everyone smiled, before setting off along the beach' in persuit of their friends. They charged past the guild at full speed, Blaze taking lead and following the tracks. They all grinded to a halt as they came across grass.

"Well, since they're not in sand anymore, it's gonna be ghard to follow them," Blaze shrugged, "So where do you think they'd be?"

"Hmm... They want crystals, so where...?" Grovyle began. Suddenly everyone looked at each other in realisation.

"Crystal Cave," they said as one, then running hurriedly to find their friends before it was too late. _ The nine of them started at the huge, glimmering crystal at the heart of Crystal Cave, right behind the inner cave that led to the Crystal Crossing dungeon.

"You think that's an imperium crystal?" Amy asked. Eve nodded.

"Yeah... When Numar sacrificed herself to fend off those Misdreavus the first day back to the human world, Numar told us the crystals in my world were in her cave. We have them now, Grovyle, I would ask you to look after them, but I think Amy should; she does seem like a trustworthy addition to our team, after all."

"Let me look after them!" cried Grovyle. Then, realising how angry he had seemed, he addded in a much more rational tone, "I've handled the Time Gears before; the Imerium Crystals probably need the same sort of handling. I don't think _she's_ever carried Time Gears, has she?"

"Actually," Amy huffed loudly, "A certain Grovyle got himself killed in my dimension. I was the one who had to take the Time Gears to Temporal Tower! Me! Me and Treeko sacrificed everything! So don't come that _Trubbish_with me!"

Grovyle just stared at her, surprised. He raised an eyebrow. "Fine. You go ahead and take the crystal. I need to talk to you later anyway." Enzo had a bad feeling about this. He turned towards Ebony, expecting her to do something, to try to defend Amy. However, she just watched emotionlessly as Grovyle glared at their new ally.

"Hey, Eve," he wispered to an uneasy look from his companion, "I think we need to talk, too." _ The large group had just set up a camp for the night, on their way to finsing more crystals, when Enzo finally collared his Eevee friend.

"Eve, does something seem... Off, about Grovyle and Ebony to you?" Eve frowned, looking towards Pika, Star, Pikachu and Celebi, who seemed just as worried about their friends as they, before finally answering the Shinx's question.

"Well, when I first met Grovyle, I thought he was a little suspicious. Now I'm _really_suspicious about him; he gets wierder and wierder. And why has Ebony got a red band of fur around her neck?"

"She always has," answered Enzo, "I can't remember a time when she hasn't. But her voice... For the most, she sounds like her. But there's something slightly different about it... Only slightly, though." Eve nodded.

"I thought that was because of her transformation to Riolu... But okay, I believe you. I think we need to get the others safe. But how...?"

Enzo got up. "I think I know a way."

**Author's note: As usual, disclaimers. Deathica belongs to Deathica-Creek, Numar belongs to NumarDarkwhisper, Lira Narry and Blaze belong to Narryeevee, the red banded Riolu belongs to Jadewolf33... They're on on DeviantART!**


	12. Chapter 12

"But why?" Grovyle asked.

Enzo had gathered everyone around to make an announcement; he wanted everyone to be safe without 'Grovyle' and 'Ebony' from knowing they were onto them.

"It's simple!" Enzo said casually, "If we split up, we'll have more coverage of the region, meaning more crystals!"

Amy nodded. "All right. So, who's going with who?"

Grovyle, or whoever he really was, stood up. "Well here's my idea. I think-"

"Let Enzo decide, since this is his plan," Eve said, interupting him. If the potential enemy was to decide the groups, they'd have no chance of getting to the bottom of what was going on before it was too late. "Go on, Enzo, tell us!"

Enzo looked taken aback at the amount of leadership he had been given. He was a good leader, but he couldn't just hope that side of him would be there; the first time he had shown true leadership was during a guild exploration, when there was just him, Ebony and Bidoof around. He normally relied on Ebony to be leader, not himself. However, he thought back to the year he had been alone, just the single leader of their team, Team United. "Uh... Okay then," his voice suddenly gained confidence, "Right. Well, Celebi, Star, Pika and Pikachu should be one team. Me, Grovyle, Ebony, Eve and Amy are the other team. Questions? No? Good."

Celebi looked rather offended. "Hang on, I have a question; you didn't give me chance! We have a smaller group and I wanna be with my dear Gr-" One stern look from Enzo silenced her. He spoke directly to her, then.

"I can trust you four to work by your own devices. Besides, there's an odd number. One team would have five and one four members, anyway."

"But you get to have Ebony on your team." Celebi whispered, but it was still loud enough for Enzo to hear. He spun around.

"Excuse me," he said in a quiet tone, "_What?!" _Celebi blushed.

"Not that I feel any special feelings for Grovyle or anything! I was just saying that... um... _friends _should stick together! You get Ebony, but I want Grovyle! And did you ever think Pikachu might want Eve?! Not to forget that there's Pika and Star, who may wanna hang around with their former trainers, too! You need to think that way!"

Panic washed over Enzo. He hadn't thought this through properly. He had put them in those groups because him, Eve and Amy knew the plan and would try to stop their two fake friends, whilst the other group would remain unharmed and wouldn't need to get tangled up in any of this. Then another worry struck him. If they were left safe, they wouldn't realise there was something that seemed off about the imperium crystals. They would collect them and deliver them straight to the evil Grovyle! "Eve," he whispered into the Eevee's ear, "We need to talk. Alone."

"Oooooh!" joked Amy, winking. Enzo rolled his eyes.

"You know I don't mean like tha- Urgh, you know, why don't you just come with us, too? This involves you, I guess." The Skitty nodded and the three of them headed slightly further away from where the others were now talking about Enzo's strange decision for the groups.

"Okay," Eve whispered, "What is it, Enzo?"

Enzo looked at both Catstars. "Right. The thing is, everyone's getting suspicious, and I think this imperium crystal story that's been told over and over again has so many flaws it just can't be real. So, if we have 'Grovyle' and 'Ebony' in our group, everyone else is safe, but they'll still find the crystals, so we have to send one of us out with them, to ensure that if anything goes wrong, we can get them out. And another thing, we can't tell them our plan. If they realise..." he looked over his shoulder to where they were all talking, "We could be putting them in more danger than is needed. I think you know who needs to go, though." Eve nodded.

"Y'know, I don't wanna miss the action, but I know when I'm needed elsewhere," she straightened, "I've started becoming great friends with Celebi, despite not knowing her for very long. I'll keep her company. And I'm sure Pikachu'll wanna hang around some more, since I left him a few weeks ago. We haven't spent enough time together. And it's been so long since I've seen Sparx- uh... I mean Pika, so I should really spend some quality time with him." Enzo smiled warmly.

"That's the spirit, Eve! Always looking for benefits for everything! Team... Uh..."

"Team Sapphire."

"Ah. Team Sapphire must have been very lucky to have you on their team." Enzo looked behind him to see the others stand and start to head up to the three. "Now, I think we need to wrap this up. I'll change the teams, remember to contact us." He handed the Eevee two small objects. "I'm sure you know what this is. If there's trouble, just use this stairs orb. Then, if it gets worse, use the rollcall orb. I found someone a while ago, someone who was good with machinery and things, to reverse the effects of the orb, so it should teleport you to us, rather than us to you. I've got some, too. That way, we can get to each other. Good luck."

Eve just managed to stuff the orbs in her toolbox when the others reached them. Everyone stood silent, waiting to hear what he had to say. "Everyone," Enzo began, "There's been a change of plan. Eve's coming with you guys, it just makes things easier. Eve's partner from the human world, and her partner from this world, are both on your team, Celebi. And I also know you guys are starting to become good friends. Other than that, the teams will remain the same. Sorry you don't get Grovyle, but Celebi, you still have your friends." Celebi remained silent, but nodded.

"I'm happy with that," Pikachu said. Pika nodded.

"Same."

"No arguments, I guess," Star piped in.

"Good," Enzo said, wrapping up his speech, "Looks like we're all in agreement."

* * *

"They're not here!" cried Blaze, seeing the empty area of Crystal cave. Lira nodded.

"We've checked all Crystal Cave, no trace of them. Maybe they're in Crystal Crossing?" Ebony shook her head.

They wouldn't be. Hey, I remember when me and Enzo came here; we saw some wierd crystal near the four colour-changing ones. Now I think of it, that could've been an imperium crystal. It's not here now, but look; someone's been here and taken it, if you notice that space there where the dirt is a little turned over. They've already been here. Hey, Blaze! How long ago do you think it's been since they were in here?"

Blaze looked around him at the evidence of passers-by before answering. "At most a day. I don't think they could've got much further, though. Hey, look! Footprints from both entering _and_leaving here! The prints are about as old as the marks from where that crystal was, so I think we've found them. Let's go!"

* * *

It only took them about ten minutes to get out of the cave. They were soon running down the path from the dungeon, hoping desperately their friends were safe. Then, Ebony saw something that raised her spirits. "Hey, everyone!" she called. They all ran up to her, curious. Lira saw it in no time at all and gasped.

"Woodsmoke!"

"Come on, guys!" Ebony yelled, relieved to have found everyone. "We gotta find-" She suddenly noticed that there were nine figures, walking in two groups, leaving the camp. She groaned. "Oh, great. I guess we should follow them. That Grovyle, Riolu and Skitty must be in the larger group, if they're a threat. There's only a group of five and of four, from what I can see from here, so they wouldn't go when there's only one of our team for them to keep an eye on."

"Sound theory," Grovyle said, nodding. They began to follow, from a distance.

"So," Lira said, "What am I like in your dimension?" Ebony smiled faintly, remembering all the wild adventures they'd had.

"Well..."

_*A Riolu is walking back from the Wigglytuff guild. She's saying goodbye to a Shinx.* _

_Riolu: Cya, Enzo!_

_Enzo: Bye, Catstar!_

_*Catstar walks into Treasure Town, where a Pikachu is walking back towards the guild himself.*_

_Catstar: Hey, Cell! Enzo's back at the guild. Remember, Narry wanted you to save her some dinner!_

_Cell: Oh, thanks for that! Where are you two off to now, anyway?_

_Catstar: We're just hanging out, y'know? Girls night out! See you guys later!_

_Cell: Bye, Catstar!_

_*Cell walks off, Catstar heads off in opposite direction. Narry is waiting in the central square of town. Catstar waves.*_

_Catstar: Narry!_

_Narry: Oh, hi Catstar. How are you?_

_Catstar: I'm good! *Walks over and high-fives her Eevee friend*_

_Both: Uiiiiiiiii! *Laugh*_

_Narry: So where we exploring today?_

_Catstar: Dunno! I heard Dusknoir wants to talk to us, though! Should we go?_

_Narry: Um... Well... I don't know. I've been having bad dreams..._

_Catstar: You mean Dusknoir's been in your Dream Demi world?_

_Narry: Yes... I don't think he's safe to hang around with..._

_Catstar: But... It'll be fun!_

_Narry: Oh... Okay then. It'll be another adventure for the infamous Team Primal!_

_*Both of them laugh, before walking off to the location Catstar was told Dusknoir is waiting, which is hidden by a few trees at the edge of a woods*_

_Dusknoir: *Looks up to see the girls* Ah! Narry Nee-Chan! And Catstar Hawthorn, too! Just the girls I wanted to see! *Tone darkens* You know of a pokémon named Grovyle, don't you?_

_Narry: *Nods* Yup! What's wrong Dusknoir, sir?_

_Dusknoir: You both know he's a criminal, and it's said he's around here. Now, I've looked all over and I can't find him. Now, if you could look behind where I'm stood, girls?_

_*Both of them look to see a large portal*_

_Dusknoir: That's a Dimensional Hole. It takes you to the future. They say he's gone through there, but I'm not sure. Can you look in?_

_Narry: No._

_Dusknoir: *Taken aback* W-why?! I demand to know why this instant!_

_Narry: We know nothing about it. It could take us anywhere, we won't risk it._

_Dusknoir: *smiles* Good job. Wise thinking. I'll share a secret with you; I found him. I was going to wait and announce it, but you girls are bright sparks... *laughs* After all, you do seem to like hanging around with electric types! Now, we tell everyone you're the brave heroes who captured him, sending him through time..._

_Catstar: Really?! Thanks! *Speaks more politely and saddened* But we can't take credit for something you managed to accomplish!_

_Dusknoir: *Ignores Catstar and continues* But you... *Reaches out his hands towards them* Dragged him through yourselves and sacrificed yourselves for the greater good!_

_Narry and Catstar: Huh?!_

_Dusknoir: *Grabs them and drags them into the Dimensional Hole* You two are coming with me!_

_Both: Waaaaaaaaah!_

_"So what happened?" Lira asked, intrigued._

_"Dusknoir dragged us into the Dimensional Hole, like I'm betting you and Blaze were dragged. We saw Grovyle there and... Well, it's a long story."_

_"Did you manage to save the world, then?" she asked. Ebony paused for a second._

_"Depends what way you look at it; yes and no. You see, we ended up back here and managed to get to a pocket in time, like the sea of time. It's kinda like a void, with no-one to bother you. I heard there's one in Jublife City, in the Human world, along with places like the Pokémon League, but they're very hard to get to and you can risk dissappearing forever if you go through them. "Whilst we were there, we got through to the Hidden Land and were intercepted by Dusknoir... Again. Narry- um... you, seemed rather distracted by something, and I don't know half of what happened after that; someone was playing tricks on our minds; we may never know what really happened; me, Grovyle and the Narry I know each have different memories of what happened at that time."_

_"You didn't answer my question," Lira pointed out. The Chikorita did't sound to be getting frustrated or inpatient, but the Narry Ebony knew was good at hiding that, anyway._

_"Okay, okay. We didn't save the world in the way you would see it, but we saved it. And we never saved time. Me and Enzo did that... Funny, he never knew about Team Primal, and neither did Cell. And I guess we really were infamous... To everyone who'd heard of us. I remember this one time when we stole a Perfect Apple from the guild's food stock, and Chatot nearly caught us. It was my fault it happened, you kept moaning you were hungry, so I went and stole it. You were reluctant to eat but... Well, I'll tell you how it went..._

_*Catstar is getting up from her bed in the guild, sneaking past a sleeping Enzo. She meets Narry in the hall.* _

_Narry: Why are we doing this anyway Catstar?_

_Catstar: You said you're hungry. If Caterpie hadn't gone and left the guild, they'd still have a good amount of food in stock. It's not my fault if the Guild's food gatherer left, but it's my fault you're starving if I can get us food._

_Narry: But stealing food is a bad idea! The others will starve more! Besides, two tiny apples won't feed both me, you, Enzo __**and**__Cell!_

_Catstar: *Grins* It's okay, I got it covered. We're gonna get a couple of __**perfect apples!**_

_Narry: *gasps* Wait... What?!_

_Catstar: *shrugs* Don't worry; it'll be fine. We all know Wigglytuff often wanders off to the larder at night to have a midnight snack. He won't miss two apples, I mean, seriously. *Both of them sneak out of the dorm halls and into the main area of the guild. They sneak as quietly as they can past the Guildmaster's chambers and get to the mess hall.*_

_Catstar: *Opens up doors of larder* Yes! Apples!_

_Narry: *Reluctantly points out perfect apple* Well... I guess I found a perfect apple._

_Catstar: *Grabs one* Come on, Narry! Take that other one and let's run!_

_*As Narry picks up an apple, they hear footsteps. Panic washes over them.*_

_Catstar: Hurry, Narry! Take that apple and close the larder doors!_

_Narry: But we'll get caught if we're still in here! Let's just run!_

_Catstar: I have an idea, though! Come on!_

_*Chatot walks in to see nothing out of the ordinary in the mess hall. He walks over to the larder and opens the doors, He pauses for a second and feels a slight change in the air, like someone's holding their breath in anticipation as to what he'll do next... He shrugs of the feeling, taking a perfect apple from the shelf and walking away. Before he leaves, he feels he is being watched. He slowly walks over to the grand table, then quick as lightning he looks underneath it. He relaxes when he can't see anything unusual and leaves the room.*_

_Catstar: *Flops down from clinging to wooden base of the table, out of sight, as soon as she hears the door to Wigglytuff's chamber shut.* Phew; that was close! You still got that perfect apple?_

_Narry: *Flops down, too, as soon as Catstar is out of the way.* Yes, but I'm not doing that again! Let's just get back to the dorms..._

_*Both girls walk into Team United's room, Catstar sitting on her bed and Narry sitting on the floor awkwardly.*_

_Narry: Urgh... So what now? Don't tell me you want me to find a needle in a haystack in here, now!_

_Catstar: *Looks at Enzo, who's still asleep on the other bed. He snorts a little, almost woken, but goes fully back to sleep after a second of silence. She lowers her voice to a whisper.* I just think we should eat a bit before we both go to sleep. I'm guessing you and Cell have a lot of guild work to do tomorow-_

_Narry: Yes, I don't know if we'll be doing jobs or sentry duty._

_Catstar: You're doing jobs; Chatot told me this morning that we're doing Sentry duty tomorrow. Anyway, I don't wanna starve, and neither do you. Anyway- *Breaks apple in half, then quarters it* we gotta eat, so take some now, then I'll have some. We can sneak the other half into Cell and Enzo's food tomorow,Chatot won't notice. *Narry nods reluctantly and begins to eat her share with Catstar, when they are interupted by a loud squark._

"Anyway, then, I guess you kinda saved our skins..."

_Chatot: Catstar Hawthorn! Narry Nee-Chan! I want a word this instant!_

_Enzo: *Wakes up, eardrums pounding.* Wow, I never knew how loud Chatot can sound when he's angry! What've you done anyway?_

_Catstar: *Shrugs; both the incident the night before and Team Primal are a complete secret she wouldn't tell even him* Dunno. Hey, you should go and tell the guild thatit's probably nothing, and that they should go back to sleep._

_*Enzo nods and leaves the room. Catstar sees Cell walking out of his dorm and he catches up with Enzo, who have a bit of guy talk as they leave the hall. Narry is about to leave when Chatot enters the hallway and glares at her.*_

_Chatot: Narry, you're not moving from your chambers until I have a word with you two! *The three of them enter Narry and Cell's dorm.*_

_Chatot: I was getting the Guildmaster a perfect apple a few minutes ago, when I was aware that some of our stock was missing. Perfect apples, to be exact._

_Catstar: *Stands frozen in shock, almost chokes on the bit of perfect apple she's still eating* Are... Are you accusing us?_

_Chatot: Now, now, Catstar, you know I've kept Team Primal a secret from your fellow guild members when you signed up for a second team at the exploration team federation, the least you can do for me is be honest. Did you steal some perfect apples? What are you eating right now, if not?_

_Narry: *Realises that Catstar may end up telling Chatot if he begs them to tell the truth* Well, we're actually eating... *Takes a moment to think of an excus* Gummis._

_Chatot: Gummis? I'd like proof, if you may._

_Narry: *Reaches for treasure bag desperately* Look, here! *Rumages through, trying to find gummis. She eventually turns out four gummis.* I've had a white one, Catstar had an orange one. We were planning on saving them for drinks at Spinda's Café, but we were so hungry... Hey, look! We have a sky gummi! Do you want one?_

_Chatot: *Stares at them for a long time before finally speaking.* Hmm... Okay. But you get no prize money for Sentry Duty tomorow, Catstar, but you still get the items. And Narry, I want a twenty-per-cent cut of the reward money for all of your missions tomorow, instead of the guild's usual ten. This only applies for tomorow, okay?_

_Catstar: But we haven't done anything!_

_Chatot: Well, You're suspected for stealing the apples, still!_

_Narry: Innocent until proven guilty!_

_Chatot: Well, it's late, you should be asleep, not eating! Just think of it as punishment for eating after hours, it's unfair on the other apprentices! You should see yourselves as lucky! Good day! (Urgh... I meant good night... Ah well, I think I've probably messed up what I was saying anyway... I guess I'd better not screw it up any more...) *Walks away*_

"Narry... Uh, I mean you, from my dimension, was always so smart. She always found a way around things. I knew Enzo would be confused as to why we wouldn't get any reward money, so I purposely messed up sentry duty that day, so we wouldn't get any anyway. It turned out pretty well. Anyway, what am I like in your dimension?"

"Well..." Lira began.

"Wait!" cried Grovyle. We all turned questioningly to face him. "Look at who we're following! _We've followed the wrong group!_"

"What should we do?!" said a panicked Blaze, flapping his wings like a flying maniac, despite not being a flying type.

"Sssssh!" said Ebony in a hushed tone, "Let's just follow them a little, then we'll warn them of the fakes and the skitty, shall we?" Everyone nodded and prepared to explain the situation to their friends.

**Lira Narry and Blaze belong to Narryeevee of DeviantART. The Riolu belongs to Jadewolf33, also of DeviantART.**


	13. Chapter 13

Eve froze. She could hear someone in the bushes, right near where they were walking. Her long ears twitched as they approached.

"Hey, guys," she whispered, "Someone's coming."

The trees rustles some more. "(Please don't let it be them,)" the Eevee thought desperately, "(Please, _please_let the others be safe...)" Eve gasped when she saw who it was, emerging from the bushes, looking tired, but alive.

"_Numar!_"

She ran over to her shiny Zorua friend, who gave them a weary grin. "Hello. Hey, you haven't given away any of those crystals to an evil being, have you?"

"Arceus, no!" Pika said with a laugh, "Why would we do that?"

"No, of course not," Eve said, "Do you know someth-" she was cut off by the familiar buzzing sound, that soon began to sound more like the flapping of hundreds of wings. She leapt to the ground, shielding her face with her paws. "Get down! _Zubats!_" _ Ebony spun around at the faint buzzing sound. She expected to hear the flapping of wings soon, but instead it had just faded away. She groaned. It had to have been hours since they had lost sight of their friends by now, and they were anxious to find them. The sound of Zubats had distracted them even more, meaning they were even further behind, now.

"We're probably close to a cave; that'd explain the sound of bat wings," Blaze assured them. Lira nodded.

"I agree with Blaze. Also, should we rest?" everyone nodded. "I'll gather wood. Ebony, are you coming? We can talk for a bit, also we can leave the guys to discuss things!"

Ebony smiled and the Riolu and Chikorita high-fived. "Uiiiiiiiiiii!" they both cried, bursting into fits of giggles. Blaze shook his head.

"Y'know, You two both said that here, too. Looks like that's something that doesn't change, by dimension. I still don't get what 'Uiiiiii' is supposed to mean, though."

Lira laughed. "Blaze, I told you before, 'Uiiiiiiiiiii' is a battle cry. You know Catsta- uh... You know, Eve didn't understand it either, at first. But it's become, like, I don't know, just something we say now. It's fun!" This time, it was Grovyle who rolled his eyes.

"No time for 'Uiiiiiiiii', no matter how fun it is to say! Come on, we have to take shelter; I think I might just know how to find our friends..." Suddenly, Grovyle seemed to seize up, frozen, listening. When he spoke next, he spoke in little more than a whisper. "Everyone, stay quiet. Is it just me, or do any of you recognise that presence?"

"It feels... Like something a presence I've been running from all my life," Ebony whispered. "You don't think its-"

"It can't be!" cried Lira. She let out a muffled cry when Blaze put his wing over her mouth.

"Ssssssh! Lira, we all feel the same. We know who it is; be quiet or he'll hear us!" Blaze hissed. Lira fell silent, but her stricken face didn't change. There was a rustle in the bushes as something began to emerge, ever so slowly...

"Whehehehe!"

"Sableye!" Ebony cried, "Run!"

* * *

He lifted his head the moment he heard the familiar cackle. He'd be tracking them for days, trying to stop them, but to no avail. He felt like he'd failed them.

Not to mention Arceus.

Dusknoir had had another dream several days ago. Arceus had looked very panicked. Dusknoir remembered it so clearly...

_*Dusknoir finds himself in a white world, but this time, it's streaked with purple and electric-blue, rushing past him at lightspeed. He goes to step forward, then thinks better of it.*_

Dusknoir: Hey, Arceus! What's with all the strange stuff? *Suddenly is filled with panic.* Is something wrong? What's happened?!

*A presence in the air starts to become thicker around Dusknoir as a figure materialises in front of him*

Arceus: It is about... Those Sableye. They are becoming a very real threat. Have you, or have you not, been trying to aid them?

Dusknoir: *Taken aback.* Wait, what?! Of course not! They work against Grovyle and Celebi! Not to mention Catstar! I've turned over a new leaf, but they just won't listen to you! *Breaks down, it's impossible to tell if it's fake tears or not.* P-please, I've tried to stop them, but they refuse to listen to you! They don't trust you for some reason, and they want the crystals for themselves! Please, believe me!

*Arceus pauses for a second before answering. He finally looks to have decided his verdict, and goes to speak. His image distorts slightly, and a faint image of a green pokémon is seen next to him, but it vanishes so fast Dusknoir doesn't get a good look at what it is.*

Arceus: Okay, you have a week. If you don't catch them by then, or my next wave of troops don't return from persuing them, no more chances. You'll be out of the picture. *Mouth curls into a snarl slightly.* ..Permanently...

*The streaked colour around them begin to swirl faster and spark, shocking Dusknoir for a brief moment, making him fall to the ground. Arceus begins to swirl like liquid in water, and almost seems to evaporate into the air. The blue and purple in the air starts to change course, coming for the fallen Dusknoir, the dream slowly turning black from white, pain coursing through his body. However, just before the last of the white is burned to black, he is jolted out of the nightmare...*

Dusknoir was still rather shaken about what would've happened if the dream had gone fully black, but there was nothing he could do. He just knew he had to find the Sableye, or hope Arceus' army could take them down. He frowned. "(Funny,)" he thought, "(Arceus is supposed to be good, so why does he have troops? It sounds stupid, but I can't imagine someone working for the good guys sending out troops to eliminate someone like that... This just doesn't add up... And also... Who was that figure I saw for a moment, next to Arceus? It couldn't have been Grovyle... Or could it...?)" And with that, he rushed off, determined to find an answer to his questions.

* * *

She groaned. More Golbats. They had just fought off an entire fleet of Zubats; why had her employer had to send Golbats, too? She turned to see him knocking them down, too. She just hoped he hadn't sent in-

"Crobats!" shrieked the Shinx, who she had discovered was called Enzo. "Duck!"

"Quack, quack!" Yelled the Skitty, who seemed to be called Amy. She hadn't realised what they'd meant, either that or she was too distracted by the pun to notice a Crobat hit her square in the back of the head, knocking her out.

"I've got a reviver seed!" called her employer, the Grovyle. "But we should wait for the numbers to die down, first!"

"(Oh, the numbers aren't going to fall,)" the Riolu thought to herself, "(Until the Zorua and Mismagius die. They know too much about our operation. He'll never let them live...Why do these guys actually _want_ to help them? I mean, they heard the bat wings, but instead of focusing on the task at hand, they decided those _fools_ should be saved... I hope we can just get them away from here, stupid bats going after the wrong group...)". And with that, she finished grumbling about careless planning and dodged another Crobat. _ Enzo noticed the small smile the Riolu had given. He didn't trust her one bit, but now wasn't the time for that. He unleashed the strongest Discharge attack he could, knocking out most of the Crobats nearby. He looked around to see that only four remained airbourne. The last few were finally knocked out by the Riolu, who looked everything like the friend he remembered, but knew she couldn't actually be. Enzo looked past her brushing off her paw from the Force-Palm attack, to notice nothing else was  
there. However, he could hear rustling, slowly getting louder and becoming the clearer crashing of tree branches being ripped aside and knew they had to get Amy back into the fight, if they were actually going to get out of this safe and find Eve's group. "(Dear Arceus, please let them be safe,)" Enzo thought desperately, "(If only a small detattachment of them came after us, I wonder how they're coping...)" he turned towards the Grovyle, who was stood, almost smirking, When he realised Enzo was staring at him, he stopped smirking quickly and acted as if he hadn't done anything. "I don't know what you're up to, but just get the Reviver seed from Amy's treasure bag?" Enzo said, a streak of suspicion in his voice. The Grovyle nodded, reaching for a seed, which he then threw at her. It exploded into flames when it hit her. A low growl escaped Enzo's throat.

"Okay, okay!" cried the Grovyle, holding his hands up in surrender. "Wrong seed." He sunk his arm into the bag once more, searching deeper for the healing item. "I think this is it! It's the last one, so we'd better use it _carefully_so are you sure we should-"

"Just use it, already!" Enzo shouted. He was letting his anger get a grip on him, and he needed to calm down. He closed his eyes and took a few deeps breaths. He had to pretend he didn't suspect the fake Grovyle, if he was to get them through this safe. He had to pretend to be his friend. "Look, I'm sorry, Grovyle. Seriously, though, use that seed! Hurry up, there's something else coming our way!" The Grovyle nodded, throwing the last seed at Amy.

Her eyes snapped open, as she began to try to stand up. But something was wrong; she should've been back in good health but she looked to be struggling to stay consious. With a little gasp, she collapsed to the ground and fainted again. The Shinx stared at the Grovyle, who was again smirking, until he saw Enzo's face. "Sorry!" he cried, in an almost convincing cry of worry.

Almost convincing.

But not quite.

"I guess that was a _Reviser Seed_ that I used!" he said, facepalming. "Looks like she'll just have to come around in her own time!" Enzo glared at him and looked just in time to see a group of about twenty Pawniard come at Enzo, his unconsious friend and two pokémon he was sure he couldn't trust.

**...There's no new characters. I don't think I have to mention who belongs to who now, until I introduce new people, okay?**


	14. Chapter 14

She sat down by the fire, by herself. The four of them had finally knocked out all of the Pawniard that had attacked, but nothing else had arrived. Maybe the fools had finally realised they'd been chasing the wrong group of pokémon, and the rest were killing the Zorua and Mismagius at that moment. Both her employer and the stupid Skitty had fallen fast asleep, only her and the Shinx, Enzo, were still awake. She was worried about that Shinx. He seemed to know a hell of a lot more than he should've, and concern was building in her more and more, every time he looked at her employer. Her concern deepened some more when he came to sit next to her, on one of the logs they'd managed to salvage from the forest.

"Hey, Ebony," Enzo said, sitting close by, "Remember all the good times we've had? All the things we've been through as a team? I beleive we still need to aim for Gold Rank when we get back to our dimension, eh?" She looked away, concluding that he must've been trying to test her, because he didn't believe she was this 'Ebony'. He probably didn't buy it because her voice couldn't be changed by the Dream Demi she'd used, so she must've sounded completely different to her. She turned herself fully around, not wanting to be tested.

"I don't wanna talk about it right now."

He was frustrated and angry; that she could tell without looking at him, from the amount of emotion emanating from him. One benefit of being a Riolu, even if she couldn't actually sense aura, since she wasn't evolved. She turned around again to face him. "Please, it's been a rough day and I just wanna relax... Enzo."

He gave a suspicious nod, but didn't press her further. He just rose and walked away.

"Hey, Enzo!" she called. He paused and turned to face her. She racked her mind, trying to think what Thunderbolt would've said to her at this point. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be acting like this. I have faith in you, Enzo. We'll get through this, as a team. But now, I'm just tired. Thanks, thanks for just letting this go. I've always known I can trust you."

Tears formed in his eyes. "Okay, Ebony. I'm sorry for not seeming to care about how you feel over these past few days." he grinned. "And we should really pack some reviver seeds next time; trust Grovyle to use a reviser seed, instead!" She laughed with him, feeling truly happy for once, even though she was just supposed to be posing as his friend. He reminded her so much of Thunderbolt... But she couldn't let personal feelings cloud her judgement. They needed to manipulate these pokémon into getting them the imperium crystals... That way, her employer could get all the power he desired, and she could finally get her revenge on Jade...

"Okay, Enzo," she said, now smiling for different reasons other than reviser seeds or Enzo, "Good night." she watched Enzo walk over to his straw bed by the side of the fire, before she climbed into hers. All four beds were in a circle around the fire, so everyone wasn't bunched up and too close together. She couldn't sleep. She waited, sat up in bed, until she could hear the Shinx snoring, her employer snoring and the Skitty's breaths as she rolled in her sleep, curled up in a ball. She then stood up, silent as... Something really quiet, before tip-toeing away and towards a nearby lake. She was too tired to react much to the beautiful sight, but too restless to fall asleep by it. Instead, she pulled some nearby reeds close up and lay down, right by a breathtaking view of the water. She thought back to what Enzo said...

_"Remember all the good times we've had?" _

Remember.

She thought back, to before all of this had happened. Before Jade had ruined her life. Before she'd became the Riolu she was today. When she was a human.

_*Everything is gray. Rocks are suspended in midair, no winds blow, night is always there, never ending darkness surrounding the world. A woman is sat sewing a ripped black scarf hat, with a sky-blue half-pokeball design on the front. A small girl of about four years of age runs in through the door. _

_Girl: Mama! We need to get out of here! I can't find Papa anywhere and I've heard Primal Dialga over in the hills!_

_Girl's mother: Get Sally, we have to go, now!_

_Girl: But... What about Papa?!_

_Girl's mother: I'm sorry, just hurry!_

_*Another girl is sat on a tyre swing, picking the petals off a flower. The first girl walks up to her.*_

_Girl: Sally! Come on, Mama's waiting inside! We've gotta go, Primal Dialga's coming! We have to leave Kanto!_

_Sally: But... Papa! Where is he?!_

_Girl: Mama says we have to leave now! We can't wait for him! Come on!_

The family had fled without her father, to Sinnoh, like many other families in her situation. Someone in town had been talking of a way to change time, if they could find the Celebis, but word of this had reached Primal Dialga's ears. Everyone was told to flee by one of the locals of Pallet Town, where she lived, but not everyone listened. Sally could only wonder what had happened to her father. However, due to events in Sinnoh that weren't anticipated, the remaining family were seperated.

_*Sally, her mother and her sister are running through the streets in Sinnoh. They are being chased.* _

_Sally's mother: Come on, quickly! Primal Dialga's nowhere to be seen, but noone's seen him in about a year! Rumour has it about some kind of portal around here, I'm betting it's the work of him!_

_*Sally trips up and neither her mother nor sister notice, in their fear. Her sister turns around and notices her way back in the distance.*_

_Sally's sister: Sally!_

_Sally: *Cries out her sister's name, but the sound is engulfed by a pokémon's desperate cry.* Please! Wait!_

_Sally's sister: Don't worry! I'm coming! *Begins to run to get to her sister*_

_Sally's mother: *Drags the girl back* Sally! Can you catch us up? We'll be in the abandoned lab down this route! Can you see it?_

_Sally's sister: But Sa- *The sound of her calling to Sally is drowned out again by the Pokemon's cry* Sally! We can't leave her, Mama! I'm going back for her!_

_Sally's mother: *Releases her daughter.* Hurry, then! I thought you'd trust her to catch up, but I understand. Hurry, now, Primal Dialga may be about. And there's a pokémon in need somewhere around here!_

_*Sally rushes to go to her sister, but she notices a break in the ground in front of her. She's never been very athletic and knows she can't make the leap across. Her sister, on the other hand, always vaulted over things back in Kanto just for the fun of it, and when she'd steal food for them when supplies got low. Nothing would grow, since time was frozen in an everlasting night. The girl leaps over the fissure and pulls her sister into her arms.*_

_Sally's sister: Oh, Sally! *Grabs her arm.* Come on, run with me! Let's get back to Mama!_

_*They both begin to run, hand in hand, but Sally notices something that isn't all gray.*_

_Sally: (Huh? That isn't all gray! What is it...?) *Carefully releases her sister's hand, without her noticing. She continues to run onwards, while Sally goes to touch the strange blue portal.*_

She soon had found herself in another world, the Pokémon world. She could speak to the pokémon there and was the only Human around. However, the planet was still paralised in that world. After another turn of events, she found herself turned into a Riolu with a red band of fur around her neck, instead of a cream one. She had lost all memory of her life before, except her name and that she was a human before.

That was when she met Thunderbolt.

Thunderbolt was a Pikachu who also happened to be her closest friend. They became an Exploration Team and were going to become the very best. That was until that Poochyena got in the way.

Jade was a very strange Poochyena; for starters, she was green. She was also absolutely insane. She was always hanging around with another Riolu, who had no special-seeming features, she was just a regular Riolu who wore a lime-green scarf around her neck. Sally didn't even know if she belonged to any Exploration Team the first time she saw her, since she was often seen hanging around with a Shinx by day, and with an Eevee at night, always getting into mischief. Sally heard that one time, they'd stolen a Perfect Apple from the Larder at the Wigglytuff Guild. But one day, she heard their team name; Team Primal.

The team consisted of an Eevee and the Riolu, who one day, she noticed leave the guild, but ran past her from the same direction seconds after! They hadn't entered again, it was like the ultimate deja vu, but it felt very real to Sally. She had no idea how it happened, but she did notice something wierd on top of that; the Riolu looked different! She wore her scarf slightly differntly now, and she had a mane of cream fur, rather than the usual band of it that a regular Riolu had. She also had dark gray paws, looking almost like she'd partly evolved into a Lucario. They also had a new two additions to the team; a Mismagius and a Poochyena.

Jade the Poochyena.

Jade first hung around with the Riolu back then, which was when they became great friends. But Jade ruined Sally's life. And she grinned to herself at the thought of when she saw the very same Riolu unconsious on that beach in this dimension, no mistaking her. She did just as her employer asked her to do, with delight, since that Riolu, _Ebony_, as the Shinx had called her, was friends with Jade. She knew hardly anything about Ebony, really, not even if Ebony was her real name, since they had often gone to call her something else whilst she was with them. She'd hit that Ebony on the head with the largest rock she could find that she could actually lift, with, what she hoped, was enough force to kill her. Then, she'd dumped her in the back of the Beach Cave, with the Grovyle, the Chikorita and the Torchic. Their corpses were probably rotting in there, by now, and they would never be found, since no-one ever bothered to look at the back of the cave, beyone the water, ever. Except her and Thunderbolt. They had discovered the secrets there, and did they get any thanks? No. Jade made sure of that.

So here she was. She looked out towards the horizon, past the lake, where beads of light were shining down upon the surface through the trees. It was sunrise. Time she got back to camp.

**The Riolu is finally revealed to be called Sally! ..But does her background sory seem familiar to anyone else...?**


	15. Chapter 15

Eve finally relaxed, taking in a breath of relief. It looked like the waves of pokémon that had been attacking had finally stopped coming. They were all exhausted after fighting two waves of Zubats, a wave of Golbats, a massive group of both Crobats and Pawniard, a wave of Sneasel, a group five Chandelure, seven Banette and two Cofagrigus, finished off by a wave of Cacturne and two waves of Honchkrow. By the looks of things, they'd mainly been targetting Numar and the Mismagius, who Eve had since learned was named Deathica. The ony reason Eve could think of was that they knew something. She'd just been about to ask Numar what she knew before they'd heard the Zubats, and she intended to know. But not with the others around. She'd made a promise to Amy and Enzo that none of the others could know about their current situation, and se intended to uphold that promise. "Numar... A word, please?"

Numar looked at Eve curiously. "Why? I need to tell you all about the Impe-" Numar went silent when she saw the look on the Eevee's face. "Okay. I will come." She turned to the Mismagius. "Deathica told me of this. She should come, too." Eve nodded and Deathica drifted towards them. The three walked away from the three electric-types and Celebi.

"Now," Eve began, "Tell me everything you know about the crystals and the threat to them."

Deathica was the one who spoke. "I'll tell you, if I may... You see, Ebony and the others were told that Arceus was one of the legendary pokémon told to guard the crystals, which would be used to save space, and they only made half of the required number, so you must go to two dimensions. Well, this is the true story..."

_*A pokémon is walking quickly through a forest in the dark. There is a faint orange glow in the distance, and a bit of smoke can be seen. There is a shadow behind the pokémon, following them. In a blind panic, the Cleffairy breaks into a run and hides in the hollow of a tree. The shadow passes, and the Cleffairy hears a voice.* _

_?: Who goes there?_

_Cleffairy: *Jumps at the voice and shrinks away slightly* I... I'm sorry! I didn't realise someone lived here!_

_*The figure moves into the light slightly, revealing a Jigglypuff. She giggles.*_

_Jigglypuff: It's okay. My name's Robin! What's yours? *tone darkens slightly.* But also, tell me why you're here!_

_Cleffairy: I'm sorry! Really! My name's Leo! I'm here because I'm... I'm being chased._

_Robin: *Tilts head to the side* Chased? By who?_

_Leo: I know this is gonna sound crazy... My shadow._

_Robin: *Giggles.* Your... Shadow?_

_Leo: *Facepalms.* I knew it. I know I sound crazy, but it hides in shadows and it's out to get me! Please help me!_

_Robin: *Pauses.* I think I've heard of a pokémon like that. It's silhoette also looks like a Cleffairy, I'm told. But are you okay staying here?_

_Leo: I've hidden in trees before, if that's what you mean._

_Robin: *Giggles again.* No, silly! I should've been more clear... I mean are you okay with staying with me! I know about all types of pokémon, I can help keep you safe from the shadow pokémon, as well as teaching you about them!_

_Leo: *Pauses a second to think* Okay, then. I don't know much about other pokémon, since I was raised in this woods, and I've only ever been here. How would you know about them, anyway?_

_Robin: I've travelled the world! I'm an explorer! *Pauses as an idea takes shape in her mind* Hey! How about we become a team? We can be the world's best exploration team... Ever!_

"But how has any of this got anything to do with the Imperium Crystals?" Eve asked.

"I'm going to get to that!" Deathica snapped, "You'll have to be patient. Now, anyway, Leo and Robin were together for many years in Robin's cabin in the woods, and fell in love. Robin was educating Leo on Pokémon not from his woods, keping him safe from the 'shadow pokémon' until...

_*Leo is a Clefable now, and is drawing a detailed sketch of a Pikachu in the dirt, explaining about how the electricity sacs in their cheeks develop and about the differences in the shape of their tails between male and female pikachus. Robin, now a Wigglytuff, enters the room.* _

_Robin: Hey, Leo! You finally finished with that last part about Pikachus?! Great! Well, I think you've got the hang of this; you've learnt about every pokémon from Bulbasaur to Mew, and I think you've just about covered everything!_

_Leo: R-really?! *Hope lights in his eyes* Can we finally be an exploration team?_

_Robin: *Nods, to Leo's shock and delight.* Yes, I believe we can. *Pauses.* But to tell you the truth, there's no such thing as an exploration team._

_Leo: *Stiffens.* Wait... You lied to me?!_

_Robin: *Is overcome with alarm.* No! Dear Mew, no! I'd never do that! I just meant explorers have always travelled solo, so we'll be the very first to be a team! *Hugs him.*_

"And so, they became an exploration team. Since there were none before, they didn't bother with a team name. Everyone simply called them 'Robin and Leo'. They were inseperable, and lived happily... Until one fateful day."

"What happened?" asked Eve. Deathica sighed.

"Well...

_*Leo and Robin are exploring Crystal Cave, when they reach the ending of the dungeon. It looks different to modern day; there are more crystals and they are all different colours, rather than the clear colour you'd see today, if you were to go.* _

_Leo: Wow, we've been here so many times before, but it's so beautiful! Just like you, Robin... Robin?_

_Robin: *Stares at crystals for a long time.* Thanks... Wow, they're so beautiful... Oh, I can't resist. I'm taking some home! I think we could put them on display! They'd look so pretty on the mantlepeice!_

_*Leo nods and they go back home. They've moved out of the cabin in the woods, now, and have their own house in the place today known as Treasure Town. It's known as Bluff's Edge, in Leo and Robin's time, since it's right next to Sharpedo Bluff. Robin never ends up putting the crystals on the mantle, instead, she stares at them every day when she gets home, fascinated by the beautiful swirling colours. She goes to the market the next day and buys a wonder orb, a sunny orb, to be exact. She stares at it intently, watching the swirling yellow mists within it swirl. She pierces a small hole in it with a sharp object, rather than smashing it as the mists escape, making the previously cloudy day be overtaken by glorious sunshine. She gets another and pierces the crystal. Nothing hapens, but when she pierces the next orb, she closes her eyes and concentrates all of her energy into making the yellow mist swirl into the crystal. The previously purple crystal turns to a bright yellow, and the hole in the crystal vanishes.*_

_Leo: *Walks into the room, impressed.* Wow, you did that?! Amazing! Shall we see if it works?_

_Robin: *Nods and shows Leo where her woven straw bag is* Take a Rainy orb, and we'll see if we can make the sun shine again._

"The climatic part comes soon. So, they smashed the crystal and it worked like the orb, but to a lesser extent. The two of them worked on this for months until finally, they found a way to make it more powerful than ever; a simple ritual. They found that by a chant and by not smashing it, but directing the essence without damaging the crystal, they could make a drought and a mass heatwave hit town, just with a simple Sunny Orb. Now, as you can imagine, Robin had discovered she had a gift. But when that gift is used for the wrong purposes...

_*Robin and Leo are having a romantic walk through Bluff's Edge at night. Arceus watches them from the sky, in his domain in the pokémon world. He worries about what power Robin could conjure up with that sort of gift, and he worries about if she were to ever have a reason to use such a power for the wrong reasons.* _

_Robin: Hey, Leo. It's so lovely here at night. The stars shine so brightly... How about we have a walk past Sharpedo Bluff?_

_Leo: *Smiles and takes Robin's hand. They both walk to Sharpedo Bluff, which is covered by trees in their time. None of them notice a shadow streak past them from behind. They sit down in the clearing of the trees.*_

_Robin: *Sees something go by* Um... Leo... I think I saw something..._

_Leo: *Smiles* It's probably nothing, dear. Are you okay?_

_Robin: *Notices a black silhoette of something that looks a lot like a disfigured Cleffairy stood behind Leo, with glowing red eyes. It's mouth widens into a large, menacing grin, teeth glinting in the darkness.* *Screams* Leo!_

Deathica noticed how her two companions were both leaning in, looking shaken, but entirely gripped by the story. She continued. "The Gengar had finally returned, after so many years. It was unknown to Robin what Leo had done to get that Gengar so annoyed in the first place, but this story is of something that happened at least a thousand years ago, so not all of it is known by most people anyway. However, Robin would soon find out what had this Gengar so riled up in the first place."

Eve frowned. "But... How would you know any of this, anyway? It's hard to know something that happened a century ago, but a millenium...?"

"Ah." Deathica said, with a smile. She shrugged. "Who knows if it's true or not? It's just a legend, but many believe in it's words. I, for one, believe it with all my heart. Sure, the story may have been tweaked over generations, but the message remains the same."

Eve nodded. "Right. Anyway, continue!"

"Right. Anyway, as you can imagine, Robin was crushed, yet fuming. By now, she knew how to create new properties of the crystals, rather than having to extract them from wonder orbs. She wanted revenge on the Gengar who killed her beloved, so she got the deepest, darkest crystal she could find from Crystal Cave and filled it with her contained hatred. She held the crystal in front of her, now darker than any colour imaginable, ready to unleash it's power, when thoughts of Leo suddenly filled her head. Tears filled her eyes, a single drop falling onto the crystal, the crystal that just a few moments before, would've destroyed the world if she'd used it. It changed the crystal into a completly different weapon, a sky-blue crystal. She had no idea what it would do, but she headed out to the woods to find the Gengar...

_*Robin is wandering though the woods, crystal in hand, looking for the Gengar. A black shadow streaks past her.* _

_Robin: It took me a long time to get the courage to find you, but I know what you are. All those years ago, back when- *Her eyes fill with tears, but the Wigglytuff manages to contain her sorrow to do what she feels must be done* -Back when you were chasing down my Leo, he told me about you. That you look like a Cleffairy shadow, that you can hide amongst the shadows... Then, the night you killed him, I saw you. I saw your eyes, and they were enough to confirm what I already knew. So come out, come out, wherever you are, Gengar..._

_*She suddenly looks down to see her shadow split into two, one of them drifting off like smoke, to then take the shape of what looks to be a disfigured Cleffairy shadow. It begins to fill in with colour, becoming purple, with glowing red eyes and a massive, manevolent grin.*_

_Gengar: Ah. The girl who protected the traitor._

_Robin: ...Huh?! Leo was no traitor! He was the nicest pokémon I ever knew, he never did anything ba-_

_Gengar: He caused the deaths a whole village, that night. Let me tell you what happened..._

_***Leo is walking through a village in the middle of a forest at night, as a Cleffairy. The village happens to be filled with Cleffa and their evolutionary line, among other pokémon.* **_

_Leo: Wow... Everyone seems so edgy tonight... I wonder what's wrong? *Sees the silhoette of a pokémon, stood still in the distance* (Maybe they can enlighten me on this...) *Walks up to them* Excuse me, can you explain why- *Pauses, seeing it's a type of pokémon he's never seen before. It turns around.*_

_?: I'm sorry, I'm new here. If you wanna know stuff, it's best to ask elsewhere._

_Leo: Who are you? And what are you? I've never seen a pokémon like you before!_

_?: The name's Inferno, and I'm not from around here; you wouldn't know what I am. I'm a Torchic. Can you show me around, please? I've heard the pokémon of this village are the most kindly around._

_Leo: Uh... Okay. I'm Leo._

_*Leo and Inferno walk for a bit, as Leo shows him around. They stop when the tour is pretty much over.*_

_Inferno: Hey, Leo. Can you show me around the places just on the borders of this village? I've not had much chance of seeing the woods..._

_Leo: Sure! Why not?_

_*They walk until they've gone all the way around. They chat for a little, Leo leaning against the back of a wooden hut. However, Inferno sneezes, letting small embers litter the ground. The hut catches fire, and the pair can do nothing as the hut burns down and the grass catches fire. Soon, the whole village is engulfed in flames. They both try to run, to get help, but it's too late. Hardly anyone gets out alive, but the pokémon who sadly die in the fire come back as ghost types, mostly among the Gasly evolutionary line. Soon, Inferno is no-where to be seen, too terrified to face what he's done.*_

_A pokémon is walking quickly through a forest in the dark. There is a faint orange glow in the distance, and a bit of smoke can be seen. There is a shadow behind the pokémon, following them. In a blind panic, the Cleffairy breaks into a run and hides in the hollow of a tree. The shadow passes, and the Cleffairy hears a voice._

_?: Who goes there?_

_Gengar: So, you see, if it wasn't for Leo, the fire may have never started. That strange fire-type wouldn't have burned down that hut if it wasn't for Leo's little private tour. He deserved to die, for all he's done to me, my family, and almost everyone I knew._

_*Anger flares up in Robin, who refuses to believe a word of it, despite knowing deep down that it's true.*_

_Robin: I'd never believe that junk. Besides, even if it was true, how is any of it Leo's fault?! *In a rage, she throws the crytal down the the ground, where it lands on the grass with a small 'thump'. Gengar pauses, staring at the crystal in a panic for a moment, before relaxing and laughing._

_Gengar: Pah! What's that supposed to do? Kehehe, you don't know the first thing about-_

_*Gengar falls silent in surprise when he sees Robin beginning to chant, performing the ritual to activate the powers of the crystal.*_

"The crystal took over Gengar's thoughts," explained Deathica, "It destroyed his mind. Made him hers to control. To do whatever she asked. He had no free will. "Robin was expecting something else to happen, but she didn't know what. However, she used the crystal to her advantage. She enslaved Gengar, the manual labor eventually killing him, her making him do the worst tasks, such as being a personal shield every time she almost took a hit in dungeons. He also worked for her as a decoy in monster houses, and did anything else that the Wigglytuff needed doing. When he died, the crystal was no longer capturing his essence, so she became more and more twisted as her life went on, using her crystal on more and more pokémon, _controlling_ them. She called it the _control_ crystal, but she gave it it's name in Latin. And Eve, do you know what control is in Latin?" Eve shook her head. "No? Well, it's _Imperium_. Now, how about that?"

Eve was frozen, awestruck, yet chilled by the story. She finally opened her mouth to speak. "So... What about the pokémon stealing the crystals? And I thought there was only one Imperium Crystal? Or did Robin make more?" Deathica shook her head.

"No; only one crystal was made by Robin. It took all of her hatred to make that crystal, and it almost drained her, anyway. If she'd risked making another, she would have risked death, and yes, she was insane, but she wasn't stupid enough to get herself killed."

"So... The threat to us now?"

"I will take it from here," Numar said, straightening. She's been leaning forward still, truly gripped by the tale. She began to explain the situation. "You see, Deathica didn't go in that much detail when she told me before, she just told me that there was a pokémon engulfed by grief at the death of her beloved, who fashioned the Imperium Crystal. But she then told me that not long after Robin died, Arceus Himself took possesion of that crystal and destroyed it, so it couldn't destroy any more lives or distrupt the peace of the world any more. The pieces of that crystal were said to be scattered throughout both universes, by the power of the attack used by Arceus to destroy it without it's power being activated, no matter how weakened it was. The pieces were sought out by many pokémon, and even several humans who discovered the legend, but no-one was ever able to find even a shard and have proof that's what it was. All searches proved fruitless. However, we managed to find out that someone's managed to discover Robin's secret to making the Imperium Crystal, and made many more, many times more powerful, but lost all but one. He went to the Human world, where Arceus was at the time, and attacked Him. He had Him surrounded, and used the crystal by performing the ritual chant. He chose Arceus because he's possibly the most powerful pokémon out there, but he's planning on getting more, he plans on enslaving every single Legendary pokémon out there, we're guessing. He made Arceus bring back Ebony and the others from the future who had dissappeared, coming to them in dreams, telling them it's their destiny to save space by collecting the Imperium Crystals from both worlds, in two dimensions. You have to warn Ebony and the others of the impending danger, and fast."

"But how do you know all of this?" asked Eve. Numar simply closed her eyes and held out her paw to the Eevee.

"I'll show you how I know."


	16. Chapter 16

Eve felt like she had fallen into a deep slumber, into a strange dream. She was in some kind of room in a large house, made of wood. She felt a lot lighter and went to look down at her paws, but instead, she saw hands. She also seemed to be floating through the air. "(Maybe I'm watching a vision, of some sort...)" Eve thought to herself. She watched as a Grovyle sat at a large wooden table, reading a book. He had a scar on the side of his face, over his eye. She floated over to his book, to see what he was reading, when suddenly, he snapped his book shut and looked up angrily, in her general direction.

"I know you're there!" he yelled, "Show yourself!"

Panic washed over Eve. How had the fake Grovyle sensed her? Wasn't she in a vision, watching a memory? "I don't know how to!" Eve yelled back, "I thought I was just watching a vision! I didn't realise-" she cut off what she was saying when she saw someone materialise on a wooden beam on the ceiling. They were knelt down on one knee with their eyes closed, and they were a Riolu. They had on a moon necklace, and were electric blue, a much lighter colour than ther average Riolu.

"You called?" asked the Riolu. Eve gasped when she heard the femine voice; female Riolus were extremely rare, yet the only three Riolu she knew or had ever seen were all female. She continued to listen to the conversation, relieved that the Grovyle hadn't actually known of her presence. The Grovyle rose from his seat, placing the old-looking book in its place on a bookcase that looked just as old. "Ah. Luna. I knew you'd be here if I called. Now, there's something I'd like you to do, if you may."

The Riolu stood and turned away. The very air seemed to be crackling with electricy around her. "And why should I help you?" she asked in a dark tone, "If you've forgotten, I only helped you the last time because I was lost, and you wanted help." Her voice suddenly turned as harsh as ice. "I. Am. Not. Your. Personal. Servant!" and with that, she shot into the air above the beam, right through the ceiling, making splinters of wood come cascading down, large chunks falling considerably less gracefully. The Grovyle tutted mocklingly.

"Now, now, Luna, calm down." he pulled a face of deep thought, clearly feigned. "Hmm... How many types are you, again?"

"Four...?" Luna said, questioningly. The Grovyle smiled.

"Ah yes... Four. Funny, not even a three-typed pokémon exists, yet the only four-typed one is a Riolu." He laughed a little. "And would you care to remind me what those four types are?"

"Fighting, Electric, Psycic and Dark."

"Ah, yes. I know you got the first, since that is your main type, anyway. But, where on earth did you get those other three?" Eve could tell he was mocking the Riolu now, that he knew all about it anyway, that he was leading her to blackmail. However, it was just a vision, or a memory, so she knew it would be impossible to intervene.

"That's of no concern to you." Her voice sounded so strong, so defiant, that Eve couldn't help but feel envious of this Riolu, who had shown that a woman could stay strong, and didn't have to be a damsel in distress every time she was messed with. She spoke with a hint of pride in her voice. However, Eve didn't like the sound of the Grovyle's chuckle. It sounded painful to listen to, manevolent, and Eve worried about what his plan was.

"Oh, Luna. Now, now, that wasn't a proper answer, was it?"

* * *

Ebony watched the others running, trying to keep up the pace. The Sableye were chasing them, but the one question still on everyone's minds was... Where was Dusknoir? She had been sure she could sense him nearby, and so had the others. Then, it came to her.

"Wait a second!" she cried. Everyone began to slow down, and she felt a rush of panic. "No, no!" she shouted, alarmed. "I didn't mean _wait_, I meant... Look, keep running, I think I know why we can't see Dusknoir."

Grovyle seemed to catch on as they ran. "I think I figured it, too. You start to recognise the feeling of when someone's nearby, after a while, and since the only time we haven't known Dusknoir to be with the Sableye was a few days after we met, he's been with them ever since, every time he's been chasing us, or nearby. The time back in the past, in this time, doesn't count because you'd lost your memory back then, when you thought he was good, so you didn't recognise the feeling. But if we can sense Dusknoir nearby..."

"Then we're sensing the Sableye, too..." Ebony continued with a nod, following Grovyle's explanation.

"...Therefore we didn't realise it, but only the Sableye are here, at the moment!" finished Grovyle. He frowned. "But I thought Dusknoir and his minions became good not long before we all dissappeared?"

"Looks like someone didn't get the message." Ebony said, gesturing to their persuers.

"Shouldn't we try reasoning with them?" asked Blaze with clear sarcasm, "They might see the error of their ways and help us kick some Grovyle butt!" He looked at Grovyle. "No offense meant, obviously.

Grovyle smiled. "It's okay," he said, "I think I'd have to agree with you, there."

* * *

The Riolu rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'll put it this way. You wanted help? Well, I won't help if you don't drop it. Now, I guess I can help, but what do you want?"

The Grovyle stared at her and shook his head. "You're a very... unique Riolu, Luna, and I'm not talking about your colouring and abilities." He pointed to his head. "I mean _up here_. One minute, you're talking calmly, or formally, the next, you're talking casual and common, or going completely insane and ranting about... Well, anything."

"You calling me crazy?!" she demanded with a growl. The Grovyle shook his head quickly.

"No! No, of course not. I just mean... Nevermind. The important thing is, I need someone with talent to help me get something very rare." Luna raised her eyebrows. He continued. "Have you ever heard the legend of the Imperium Crystal?" Luna shook her head. "Well, it goes like this...

_*A pokémon is walking quickly through a forest in the dark. There is a faint orange glow in the distance, and a bit of smoke can be seen. There is a shadow behind the pokémon, following them. In a blind panic, the Cleffairy breaks into a run and hides in the hollow of a tree. The shadow passes, and the Cleffairy hears a voice.* _

_?: Who goes there?_

_Cleffairy: *Jumps at the voice and shrinks away slightly* I... I'm sorry! I didn't realise someone lived here!_

_*The figure moves into the light slightly, revealing a Jigglypuff. She giggles.*_

_Jigglypuff: It's okay. My name's Robin! What's yours? *tone darkens slightly.* But also, tell me why you're here!_

_Cleffairy: I'm sorry! Really! My name's Leo! I'm here because I'm... I'm being chased._

_Robin: *Tilts head to the side* Chased? By who?_

_Leo: I know this is gonna sound crazy... My shadow._

_Robin: *Giggles.* Your... Shadow?_

_Leo: *Facepalms.* I knew it. I know I sound crazy, but it hides in shadows and it's out to get me! Please help me!_

Eve tuned out for a bit, whilst he told Luna the story. She's already heard the entire thing from Deathica; she didn't need to hear it all again. She sat patiently, waiting for him to finish. Finally, he began to wrap it up, after what felt like hours, but must've only been minutes, really.

"And so, after she died, Arceus Himself destroyed the crystal. He used Judgement to do so, which was so powerful, parts of the crystal were scattered throughout both worlds; there were twenty-five peices in all. The reason I called you here is because I want possesion of the crystal. I want you to try to find the peices."

Luna sighed. Eve could tell she was sorried about what would happen if she did, but she knew she had no choice. "Fine. But this is the last favour I do for you, Riku Shroud."

Then, the vision changed. Eve felt herself be dragged away, like drifting on water, and the room, the Grovyle and Luna vanished, like smoke on wind. Eve finally felt like everything had settled down, and a new scene drifted in. The Grovyle, Riku, or whatever he was called, was reading again and this time, Eve got a glimpse of the book he was redaing. It seemed to be an instruction book on how to fix orbs to make them re-usable, but Eve had no idea what he could possibly want fixed wonder orbs for. As she sat pondering this, he closed the book again, hearing a small shifting noise. He smiled, but it wasn't a warm smile, it was more of a smug smile. He rose from his chair, looking up at the wooden ceiling beams.

"Luna! You have the crystal, then?" She walked over to the table and slammed down a green pouch. It rattled slightly.

"Luna... What's with the attitude?"

"You should know," she said, gritting her teeth. "Riku." He glared at her.

"I told you to stop calling me that!" he yelled angrilly, "I haven't been known as Riku for years!" he pointed to the scar over his right eye. "You see this?! You know who gave me this, and you know why! I don't want anything in my life to remind me of him! So please, shut up alreday with that name!"

"Jerk." She looked to be going into her casual state, now. "Just because you had a name, and he didn't. Just because you thought you were special. You can't blame your brother for that he did and you know it. If you hadn't betrayed him like that-"

"Shut up!" he yelled, again. "It was _him_ who betrayed _me!_I even had to send that fool, Darkrai, after him, and what happened with that?! That stupid girl shielded him, so all my hard work counted for nothing."

Eve gasped. Catstar had told her the story of her shielding... "(No!)" she thought, "(No... he can't be!)"

* * *

Sally groaned as Enzo and Amy walked a bit further on, talking in worried whispers and pointing to her and her employer.

"Urgh... Hey, Grovyle? Can we just kill these idiots, now?"

He turned to face her. "I have a name, you know."

Fine then. I forgot about it, okay Riku?!"

He glared. "It's Shroud."

"Whatever. Anyway, they know... Can we kill them now?"

"Well, they're no use to us if they figure out our plan..."

"Good," Sally said, heading over to the other two. Shroud held out his hand to make her come to a halt.

"_But..._They only know we're not their allies right now, so they still believe in what I got Arceus to tell them. We should let them live, for now."

Sally grumbled to herself, but didn't press him further.

* * *

Eve gasped as she came back into consiousness. The rest of the vision had shown Riku, or whatever he called himself now, fixing the crystal with the aid of a dark type who wouldn't show himself properly. He had then made more of the crystals, using the first as reference. It had changed again, to show the crystals getting lost, scattered all over both worlds, thanks to him not keeping close enough guard on them. Luna was the one who 'scattered' them. Eve felt wierd with her feet on solid ground again and when she looked down, she saw four brown paws. She was Eevee again.

"So... This vision? How did it come to you?" Eve asked.

"In a dream," Numar explained, "I have them, now and then. I used to belong to a pack, called the Wolf's call. It was mainly made up of the Zorua evolutionary line, but we had Poochyena, too. I was in a place of power in the pack, and I would have visions of past, present and future. But it isn't like the Dimensional Scream, like Ebony has; the visions come in dreams, not through contact. Don't ask me about why I am not with the pack, you'll get no answer."

Eve just left it at that. "So..." she suddenly spun around as the Dusknoir she saw the day it all started crashed through the trees up to them. "HOLY MILTANK!" she cried, "We gotta get outta here!"

"_How?_" Star asked. Then, Eve got an idea. Of course! The Rollcall Orb!

"Everyone! Stand close, I have a plan!" Everyone walked up to the Eevee, confused. She smashed the orb to the ground and it imploded, since the effects were reversed. Light seemed to shine from below up to them, and they were dragged into the ground at lightspeed.


	17. Chapter 17 End?

Enzo spun around at the sound of buzzing, but it wasn't like when the Zubats came. It was more like... The sound heard after using a Rollcall orb. But Sally hadn't seen anyone use one... Suddenly, seven pokemon seemed to shoot out of the ground, but the dirt remained looking untouched. The pokemon were the group they had split up from before; the two Pikachus, the other Shinx and the Eevee. They were accompanied by the Zorua and the Mismagius from before.

"Don't trust them!" shrieked the Eevee, Eve, was it? "They lied about the Imperium Crystals! Riku here made up the entire story and he was the one who created the crystals! They're just to force pokemon into doing whatever they want! Imperium mea-"

"Oh, that's quite enough," Shroud said, slowly, with a monevolent tone, "The name's Riku, by the way. And you're all as good as dead, now..."

* * *

Ebony peered into the distance, seeing the silhoettes of a large group of pokemon. They didn't look to be moving, so she and the others all took some time to catch their breath. She sighed as she thought back to her Human life. She often missed her parents, not to mention her sister. She never found out what happened to her father, but she hoped her mother was still safe, in a brighter future, literally. But she also worried about what had happened, just before she got Star... She'd been running hand-in-hand with her little sister to catch up to their mother, when her hand suddenly felt lighter... By the time she turned around, she was gone. Ebony said a silent prayer for her lost sister before turning to her team.

"Right, team. We should really be setting off now. Let's go!" everyone nodded, heading for their destination.

"So," Lira said as they walked through the trees, "What are the others like?"

"Friendly."

Lira stopped in her tracks. "They don't look it." Ebony gasped at the scene before them.

A Grovyle had his arm around Enzo's throat, as if he was pointing a knife at him, but instead of that, he had the razor-sharp-looking leaves on his elbow dangerously close. He was slightly taller than Grovyle, but looked younger, as his head, both arm and tail leaves were shorter than her friend's. His eyes were the reverse colours of any normal Grovyle's eyes; the whites were instead blue, with a yellow inner circle. The pupils were a normal black colour, though. He had his other elbow towards Eve's throat. A Riolu with a red band of fur around her neck was holding a Bone Staff, pointing it at the others threateningly, who were cornered by the side of a rocky cliff face.

"Waitwaitwaitwait... What's going on? _And how does that Riolu know Bone Rush?!_" Ebony asked, astounded, yet terrified.

"No concern of yours." Ebony couldn't help but notice the familiarity of the Riolu's voice.

"Why are you doing this?!"

"Revenge."

"On who?"

"Jade."

Ebony was shocked. "Y-you know Jade?!"

"She ruined my life. That's all I'm saying."

"Okay... Who the hell is this guy?!" Ebony demanded, gesturing to the Grovyle.

"Riku..." Grovyle said in a mere whisper, but it was enough for Ebony to hear.

"W-what?!" she cried, "You know him?!"

"Yes, of course I do! I have a lot more experience in dealing with him! I'm the one who gave him that scar on his face! Aren't I, Riku?" Everyone looked between the two seething Grovyles, shocked.

"Don't." the Grovyle began, "Call. Me. That. My name's Shroud, I never liked the name Riku!"

Ebony grinned to herself, having a funny idea in mind. "Riku!" she yelled, "Riku, Riku, Riku, Riku, Rika, Reeker uh... Uh... It's too hard to say fast!"

Shroud dropped Enzo and Eve and spun around to face Ebony. "Shut up, now."

"So what if I don't?"

The Grovyle raised his eyebrows. "I've had a rough life. You'd be surprised at what I'm capable of."

"Ditto."

"Where?" the Skitty asked suddenly, not understanding. Both pokémon ignored her. Shroud folded his arms.

"Well, my parents gave me a unique name, unlike my brother.I thought I was special, more loved... But my brother still got all the attention. Treeko... I hated him. I still do. I remember when he evolved... He was older than me and I was still a Treeko. But I was jealous... And angry. I was young and foolish... So I attacked. But instead of my brother showing compassion, or trying to settle it, he rose to the challenge." he pointed to his right eye. "He did this! Does that seem like a caring brother to you?! On top of that, the world I'm from isn't like today. It was a future of darkness... I was lost and alone, but I was thankful that I had my good friend, right beside me. She used to be a human, you know? But enough talking. You honestly think you've had a rougher life?"

Ebony gave a grim smile. "Yup. I lived in that future of darkness, too, and I lost all of my family, even my pokémon partner. I wasn't always who you see today... I happened to meet a Treeko who looked after me and became my closest friend... Only he was attacked by some dark-type when we came to the past, and I shielded him and lost my memory. I forgot all about him and made a new friend... Only for them to be ripped away from me, too. Try being erased from existance, then being brought back just to get some dumb crystals! So yeah, I've had worse. And I wasn't as heartless and ungrateful as you! Your parents loved you, and you turned your nose up at them! You didn't have them torn from you, but tore yourself from therir lives single-handedly! So don't you talk to me about rough lives. You don't know the half of it..." She finally stopped talking and took a breath, but she was still fuming. Shroud juststared evenly, like he was hiding his surprise. He unfolded his arms.

"Okay, enough of that." he turned to the Riolu. "Shall we?"

Ebony noticed a new look on the Skitty's face. Determination.

* * *

Amy, who was normally rather slow and a bit crazy, was genius in battle. She was very tactical and loved a good fight. She smiled with a look of determination and turned to the others. "Everyone! Grovyle, you said you know how to battle Shroud easily! Truth is, so do I, since we both knew him in my dimension, too! You tae him on, I'll help when you need me! Someone should take out our little Riolu friend; she seems like a pest. Anyone? No, I'll do that, then."

"No." another Riolu said, who Amy guessed was the real Ebony, "Let me take her on."

Amy nodded, turning to the others. "Right. We need an escape route; look, but don't act too suspicious." the others nodding, no-one noticing a shadow streak past.

* * *

Shroud used Leaf Storm at Grovyle, who used Dig to avoid it, coming back up with a regular attack, followed up by Quick Attack. Shroud missed the worst of the regular attack, but got the full blow of Quick Attack, dazing him for a second, before he angrilly threw some Leach Seeds at his enemy. Grovyle missed all but one, using Absorb to quickly gain a little more strengh. He used Leaf Blade, before wincing as he lost some of his energy, which was transferred to Shroud. For a while, both Grovyles would use energy-draining attacks on their foes, making their health replenish constantly. Ebony turned back to her battle.

She snatched the bone staff out of the other Riolu's paws before attacking her with Shadow Claw. She dodged it, before launching Dark Pulse. Ebony was sjocked, but successfully managed to use Copycat, followed up by Force Palm. Both their paws clashed in the air, blocking each other's moves; the other Riolu had used Force Palm, too. She kicked Ebony, who wasn't expecting such a thing.

"No fair!" Ebony yelled, "That's cheaing!" The Riolu grinned.

"I don't play fair." Ebony growled angrilly and punched her in the face. She growled back. "Oh, big mistake..." she turned to Enzo. "Sorry, dude. I was starting to like you, but..."

Ebony screamed out in rage when the red-banded Riolu Force-Palmed her partner, making him go flying backwards, crashing into a tree. "Oh," Ebony said grimly, "Even bigger mistake." A Thunderbolt streaked right past her, but she ignored it. She didn't even wonder who sent it. She could hear grass-type attacks from all directions, and fire buring, but she ignored it. She let herself forget all about Eve, the other dimension, Shroud... Everything apart from the fact that this Riolu was playing dirty, attacking Enzo. Then, she even let herself forget Enzo. The only thing that mattered was getting rid of this monster.

She walked calmly over to the Riolu, who looked a little surprised that she didn't look enraged at all, and raised her hand, to use Force Palm. She felt herself get ready to unleash the move, but it felt... Different. The energies of the move felt the same, but it felt like she was about to use a different move. She let it take over her senses, letting the move control itself, almost. She looked to see the Riolu start to float into the air, looking panicked and clutching her throat. She was being choked, even though there was noone near her. From clutching her throat, she began clawing at it, like she was running out of breath. But then, she heard something that made her stop for a second.

_"Catstar! No!"_It was Enzo. She suddenly remebered him again, as the world flooded in around her. She blinked, letting the Riolu fall into a heap, still consious and alive, but barely. She managed to stumble to her feet.

"H-huh?! Catstar?!" Ebony stared at her, surprised.

"How do you know my name?"

"My sister's called Catstar! I haven't seen her in years! ...But, the Catstar I know is a human..."

Ebony's eyes widened. "Wait... _Sally?!_Sally, is that really you?! How did you get here?!"

"Long story."

"Why are you working for the bad guys, sis?"

"I'm not. You are."

Ebony rolled her eyes. "Tell me..."

"I was alone, in the pokémon world. Shroud found me, and my trust in him grew. A lot. We became great friends, and he told me the story of hie evil brother. He told me about his dream of getting the pieces of something called the Imperium Crystal, so he could re-make it, stronger, so all the bad pokémon in the world could see sense and be made to work for the greater good. I worked with him for a while, but it turned ou tin our time, Arceus had managed to completely get rid of the whole crystal. So, we went to the past. "Only as we were travelling through time, I let go of his hand by mistake, and I blew off course, turning into a pokémon and losing my memory. "After a long course of events, me and my Pikachu partner saved the world, and I started to dissappear. Luckily, I was brought back, and we lived happily, until Jade ruined my life. I'm not gonna talk about that. But you shouldn't be siding Shroud's brother. He's the most evil pokémon there is, and he'll turn against you. Come on, sis..."

Ebony turned away. "No." She slowly turned to face Sally again. "But you should join us. Join the good side in all of this, Sally... We can work to stop Shroud... Together! We could do with you, sis..." she held out her hand. "Oh, and sorry for trying to kill you. Can you join us, now?" Sally slapped her hand away.

"No! I'll never join you! Not if you're working with that evil _Grovyle!_Shroud doesn't wanna hurt anybody!" Ebony rolled her eyes.

"Fine. Have it your way... Goodbye."

Ebony started to walk away, not noticing that Sally was stood behind her, holding a large rock. "Sorry, sis..." she whispered, hitting her over the head with it, grinning, "I can't let you leave. Not only are you siding with him, you're friends with Jade. So allow me to say it. Goodbye."

* * *

Eve gasped at what was going on around her. Everyone had just been looking for a way out, when the Riolu had Force-Plamed Enzo into a tree. When she managed to tear her eyes away from the scene, she noticed the two Grovyles were being a lot more violent in their attacks; now neither of them were using moves, and were just pounding each other badly; punching, kicking, throwing... Then, she'd heard a lot of comotion behind her, seeing everyone else fighting: Pika and Star, Amy and Pikachu, the Chikorita and the Torchic, who looked a lot like two of her good friends from back home and Numar and Deathica. Her and Celebi were the only ones not attacking each other.

"I _told you_not to touch my tail!" Eve overheard Star yelling at Pika. Pika simply growled at him and used ThunderBolt. The move missed, streaking past Ebony, who looked way too calm, which kinda freaked her out a bit. She used a move that looked a whole lot like Psycic on the Riolu, who looked like she was choking in midair. She turned away from the scene when she heard a whisper in her ear.

"Hey, Eve? What should we do?! Everyone's fighting each other!" Celebi whispered in panic.

"Hmm..." Eve said, noticing something. Anger looked to be in everyone's eyes, which was the thing that had caught her attention before, not to mention the fact that they were all fighting. She ducked a Vaccum Cut from Numar and got out of the way of a Discharge from Pikachu before looking at them again. They all seemed to attack at the same time as each other, like they were'nt attacking of their own accord. She looked into the bushes nearby and saw something that made her blood run cold. "C-Celebi..." she stammered, pointing, "I think that's why they're attacking..." There was a hand producing from the bushes, pointing at their friends. It had a foreboding feel to it. Eve recognised what pokémon it was almost right away. Celebi seemed to, too.

"Is that a-" she began. Eve nodded.

"It doesn't make any sense. I thought they could only do that in dreams?"

"I thought so, too..."

"Should we stop it?"

"I think we should." The two pokemon walked cautiously towards the trees, to surprise-attack the pokemon. However, just before they got the chance, it vanished like black smoke. They looked at each other, confused. Maybe he'd just ran off. As Eve looked around herself, she saw the others stop fighting, rubbing their heads.

"Owow... My head..." the Chikorita moaned. Eve's eyes widened in recognition of her.

"I thought it was you! Narry! Blaze!" the two turned to her and grinned.

"Catstar!" cried Narry, "Well, I'll call you Eve, and you should call me Lira, right now. UIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"

"UIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" Eve replied in response as they high-fived. They both giggled. Blaze rolled his eyes.

"Um... The fights?"

Eve looked around to notice Ebony knocked out, on the floor. There was a rock on it's side, right near her, and the Riolu was joining in the fight, punching Grovyle when she could, then kicking him in the head everytime he fell to the ground. Amy looked almost tearful; and so did Lira. Eve knew they both were very attactched to Grovyle, even if he wasn't the one they knew from their dimensions.

"_GROVYLE!_" they both screamed. Amy rushed behind Shroud, using Assist. She kept constantly using random moves their entire group knew, whilst Lira kept using Vine Whip on both the Riolu and Shroud. Eve took the chance to run over to her Riolu double and give her the last Reviver Seed from her toolbox. Ebony lifted her head, slightly dizzy.

"Wha-what happned?" she asked, dazed.

"That Riolu hit you over the head with a rock," Eve explained.

"That Riolu... It's Sally!"

"S-Sally?"

Concern showed in Ebony's face. "What's wrong?"

"My sister Sally... In this dimension, she went missing when she was two. She was kidnapped." Ebony put her arm around her in sympathy.

"Oh. Different story for this one. I'm sorry to hear that, though. Anyway, we should probably get-"

"Huh?!" Amy suddenly cried.

"What's up?" Pika asked, curious.

"I just used the Assist move, Fury Swipes!" Amy yelled. Lira went pale, along with Blaze, Ebony, Enzo and even Grovyle.

"Sableye," they all whispered in unison. "Run, everyone!"

And run they did.

* * *

"I was wondering what happened to those Sableye!" Ebony yelled, "One minute they were chasing us, then they were gone!"

"I know!" Lira yelled back, "Careful!"

Numar looked at Deathica, determination on her face. "Hey... I'm going to distract them."

Ebony facepalmed. "Numar! You've done this before; don't do that, now!" she cried. However, Numar stopped running and came to a halt. Tears formed in her eyes.

"Go onwards. I remember when I used to live in the pokémon world... I'm back; I'll be fine. Soon, you'll come across a river. Ther's a massive waterfall down there. You must go down it; have faith." Deathica came to a stop, too.

"I, too, am glad to live back here. Go on, I'll distract the Sableye, too." Lira's eyes filled with tears, but she grinded to a halt as well. Blaze stopped when he saw the look on her face.

"We should stop, too. Good luck, truly... Get out of here..." Amy slowed down, the same look of determination in her eyes, too. She simply gave them all a nod.

Eve's eyes filled with tears. "A-all of you... Thanks. Thanks for everything. Don't let them get you, keep running. Remember, Shroud and Sally are running, too, if they catch you up... Just... Just survive, okay?"

Blaze looked behind him, to see Shroud and Sally, fleeing from Sableye. "Get running; they're coming. We'll backtrack and stay out of sight, until we're behind Shroud. We'll chase away the Sableye, but you have to get those crystals somewhere... And destroy them. Good luck!"

Ebony nodded and shared a bleary-eyed look with the others, before they all picked up the pace and continued to run.

* * *

After about half an hour, they came across the river Numar had told them about. Silence surrounded them, save for the rushing of the water, so they assumed the Sableye, amongst the others who had stayed, had gone. They noticed a hollowed-out log near the riverside, so Grovyle walked over to it and grabbed one side, heaving it into the river. It took him a while, but eventually, he managed, and it plopped into the river with a small 'splash'.

"I could've donw with a bit of help, guys!" he shrugged it off, sighing, before gesturing ot the log. "Shall we?"

It was a tight squeeze, so some of the smaller pokémon (Eve, Cell, Pika and Celebi) squeezed into the hollow of the log, while the others sat on it. Ebony winced when she saw the height of the waterfall.

"Eh... Looks like a pretty big drop." she said. The waterfall looked bottomless.

"Well, Numar said we need to go down, so we should." Grovyle said.

However, that changed pretty fast. Star screamed.

"Look! The bottom!" sure enough, the bottom of the waterfall was vaugely visable, and it didn't look good. Huge rocks jutted out from the riverbed, with spiked tips that glinted in the light of the sun. Ebony saw something dark coating the tips which looked sickeningly like blood stains. Then, Ebony understood.

"Wait... Numar said we had to get here, and Blaze said we had to destroy the crystals... Maybe this was Numar's plan. Taking the crystals here... They'd be destroyed, and we'd be dead. No-one could get them again. Ever." Ebony heard Eve crying and everyone else she could see was either sobbing or nodding determinedly, accepting their fate. They were right next to the edge, now, and the log began to tip-

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAH!" Everyone began to fall out of the log now, which began to fall faster. Celebi, who had still been inside, flew out just in time; the log shot down past them all to smash into splinters when it hit the sharp rock. Ebony braced herself for the end, shutting her eyes tight. She heard the cries of the others as she felt a sharp pain in her back and everything went black.

**D:**

**Now, for your entertainment, here is the comment Jadewolf33 posted on this on my deviantART!**

**Jadewolf33: THIS WAS THE LAST CHAPTER?! NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU UUUUUUUUUUUU! WHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYY! WHY CAN'T THEY SURVIVE BY SOME FREAK ACCIDENT!? *cries* I loved this so much and now it just ends with almost everyone dying! What happened to Sally? Her back story never went into much detail and just... Ok...If you want to end it like this, you can... I just can't believe nit...I formed a bond with the characters, and it just ends like that! Man... This is the first story that I have read that didn't have a happy ending, not counting creepypastas. I just wanted more but... It's over... :( You should make an epilogue... D':  
RIP all of you who sacrificed yourselves for the safty of the wordl...**

**Hehe...**


	18. Epilogue

Ebony opened her eyes to a white world. She was starting to feel more herself now, for the first time in weeks. She felt lighter, happier... But then she remembered what had happened. Dissappearing, meeting Eve, the crystals, Shroud... The waterfall. She lifted her head and looked around properly again. She appeared to be lying on a cloud. She brushed her finger through it and it moved slightly, the thin, wispyness seeming impossible to actually be a solid surface, since it was actually a gas.

"Ebony?" a voice said, echoing through the clouds. "Ebony, are you there?"

It was Enzo. "Yeah, I am! Where are we, though?"

"Dead," a voice said behind her. She turned to see Grovyle. "I think so anyway. Or do you think there's another reason for being in the clouds after being impaled by rocks, yet not having any trace of injury, Ebony? Honestly, have some common sense!" Grovyle was starting to sound a bit like a jerk, which suited Grovyle. Looked like he was being his normal self, too. Ebony rolled her eyes.

"Yeah... Thanks for the reality check, Mr. Sunshine. Hey, Where the hell is everyone else?" she asked.

"Probably in their own dimension's version of wherever we are."

"But Celebi..."

"I'm sure she'll be here so-" Grovyle was cut off by the sound of Celebi talking to someone. She soon came into view, along with-

"_Eve!_" Looked like she wan't in another place. Eve smiled and waved.

"Hey!"

"What about me, then?!" demanded Celebi. Ebony laughed.

"Yeah, but you were bound to turn up, Cel! We thought Eve was gone to her version of whatever-the-hell-this-is!" Celebi rolled her eyes and they all laughed. _ Soon, the others had found them, save for Numar, Deathica, Blaze, Lira and Amy, who were still somewhere below, fleeing from the Sableye.

"Let's explore!" said Ebony cheerfully, happy to see all her friends, despite the reasons.

"Ok!" responded Pika. The eight of them began to walk through the clouds, content with how things would be from now on. _ Lira ducked another branch as they ran. They'd split up from Numar, Deathica and Amy, so they could divide the amount of Sableye again. "Will they be safe?" she asked. She hoped so; they were their friends and she hoped nothing bad had happened.

"Oh, I wouldn't count on that," Blaze said darkly. Seeing Lira's questioning frown, he continued, "Didn't you realise where Numar told them to go to? That was Dagger Falls!" Lira gapsed.

"But... She sent them to die! She must've been working for them!"

Blaze shook his head. "Amy had given Grovyle the Imperium Crystals, when we were running. I'm sure the crystals were destroyed with them."

Lira just stared at him, before realising she'd stopped running and was nearly caught by the Sableye. She used Quick Attack to give her a quick boost of speed and caught up with Blaze. _ Numar took the lead, followed by Deathica and Amy. They'd been running for hours, but their Sableye persuers were relentless. Numar had decided the only way out was Dagger Falls; she'd been planning on joining their friends in the clouds as soon as the Sableye were out of the way, anyway. She saw the river coming up and dived in quickly. The others dived in too, having no idea what was about to happen. But Numar didn't have any idea about who was hiding in the bushes, watching them. She didn't even notice when they dived into the water, too. _ Meanwhile, Shroud and Sally were in the middle of it all; they were chasing the others whilst running away from the Sableye.

"Hey!" Sally cried, motioning to something nearby, "A river!" Shroud got the message and the two of them dived into the cold water.

Straight towards the waterfall.


End file.
